We're Playing Hardball Now
by AstaLaila
Summary: A new Stars Hollow event brings out a little bit of everyone's competitive side, in more than one way. JavaJunkie Kind of episodal, without episodes.
1. Thanks Coach

Disclaimer- I no not own any person, place, animal, vegetable or mineral incorporated into this story. They belong to the original writer, ASP, and the station, WB, etc.  
  
A/N- This occurs right about...now I guess, what with the lack of a new episode this week.  
  
" People! People! Could everyone just quiet down for a minute. I know that Luke's announcement of tomorrow's dinner special is exciting, but if you can believe it I have something even more important." Taylor grumped with more than a little sarcasm. The crowd slowly quieted down as Taylor waited impatiently. "So, as I was saying, I have a very important announcement. Next Friday, Star Hollow will be having its very first Thanksgiving Charity Softball Game." A murmur ran through the crowd. "Now, we have four teams, so everyone who wants to play choose a team, and everyone else pick one to support, and remember that at least one third of the players have to be female. Details will be posted at each of the four team headquarters tomorrow night."  
  
" Hey Taylor, what are the teams?" Babette questioned.  
  
" Well, each is represented by a local business. So, of course, there's Doose's Market, Al's Pancake World, Gypsy's Garage and-"  
  
" Don't say it Taylor." Luke growled from his seat next to Rory.  
  
" Luke's Diner."  
  
" Taylor." Luke stood up.  
  
" Yes Lukas? Do you perhaps have an announcement to make about the bagel of the month."  
  
" You never asked if I wanted to run a baseball team."  
  
" Well, Luke, I just assumed, since you play in the summer league, and you are a local business owner..."  
  
" I don't want to run a baseball team!"  
  
" Well, fine then, I guess that I'll just have to go and tell all the sick children that they won't b getting any presents this Christmas because Luke Danes didn't want to give one day of his life to play a game of softball for them."  
  
" You are not pulling the sick kids on me Taylor."  
  
" I wonder where I put the phone number for the St. Anne's pediatric centre..."  
  
" Fine! I'll do it. But if you ever pull this again..." Luke sat back down and put his hands in the air.  
  
" Excellant. Alright, details will be up tomorrow."  
  
" You aren't putting anything up in my diner." Luke grumped " So...figure out your teams, because rosters have to be submitted by Monday. Nine players per team. That's all for tonight, meeting adjourned." Taylor smacked his gavel on the podium and the meeting broke up. Rory and Lorelai grabbed their jackets and followed after a fuming Luke towards the diner for post meeting discussion. They found a table and sat down.  
  
" I think we should do it." Rory spoke up, taking a big sip of coffee.  
  
" Do what?"  
  
" Play in the softball game."  
  
" LUKE!" Lorelai turned quickly and yelled across the diner. He looked up from the order he was taking and frowned.  
  
" What?"  
  
" What did you slip into Rory's coffee?"  
  
" WHAT?" Luke looked at her like he finally had concrete evidence that she was destined for the funny farm. Rory just rolled her eyes and waved him back to his order.  
  
" Very funny Mom. Come on, it's for a good cause. Plus we can work off the triple Thanksgiving dinners from the day before."  
  
" Triple?"  
  
" Grandma's, Sookie's, and Luke's, of course."  
  
" No Lane's?"  
  
" She's going to visit one of her cousin's in Boston. They just moved from Korea."  
  
" So you think that we should play softball..."  
  
" Yeah."  
  
" So, wait, who are you and where did you take my daughter."  
  
" Mom."  
  
" Since when are you into physical activity."  
  
" It's for charity."  
  
"This from the person who was too lazy to get up from the couch to stop the coffee pot overflowing this morning?"  
  
" So you'll do it with me?" Lorelai grimaced but Rory grabbed onto her arm and bounced up and down. " Pleapleapleapleapleasssssee?"  
  
" Fine...Luke's team?"  
  
" Of course."  
  
" Do you think there will be flannel uniforms?"  
  
" I hope not."  
  
" Are we going to wear or pretty baseball hats backwards to mock him."  
  
" Of course."  
  
" I guess we should go tell him."  
  
" He'll be delighted. Just wait til he comes over so we don't have to get up."  
  
" That's my baby. I was starting to get worried."  
  
" What can I get you two?" Luke wandered over from the other table he had been serving.  
  
"Coffee and guess what?"  
  
" I don't serve that."  
  
" Ha. A joke. Good one Mr. Funnypants."  
  
" What's wrong with my pants."  
  
"Okay, never mind No Sense of Humour Man."  
  
" What do I have, multiple personalities?"  
  
" How could you, Mr. One-Sided Personality? So....Guess what?" Luke glanced over a Rory.  
  
" Am I actually going to have to guess?"  
  
"I hope not. With this one, I'd probably starve to death before you got it right and we could order." Rory grinned encouragingly.  
  
" So what's the big news."  
  
" Rory and I have decided to be two thirds of the one third of your females on you three thirds softball team." Lorelai replied enthusiactically.  
  
" What?"  
  
" Put us in coach. We're ready to play." Rory grinned.  
  
" You two...want to play softball?"Luke looked at them as though they had switched heads.  
  
" Yeah. Why's that so strange?"  
  
" It just seems a little...active."  
  
" Pleaseeeeee?"  
  
" Yeah, of course, but..."  
  
" Who else is on the team." Lorelai demanded.  
  
" So far? I've been talking to people around the diner, and there's Kirk, Caesar, Dave, Steve-"  
  
" Steve from the park?" Lorelai asked warily.  
  
' Steve from Peach St."  
  
" Relief." She sighed, looking at Rory.  
  
" Yeah, Steve from the park gives me the heebe jeebes." Rory said, nodding back in agreement.  
  
" So, them, me, you two, and we need two more. You two know anyone? Someone from Yale you'd want to bring Rory?"  
  
" Yeah, you should start to ease your new friends into the freakish dimension that is Stars Hollow."  
  
" Well, I could ask Marty."  
  
" Naked guy?"  
  
" Yeah, he told me he used to play little league." " We still need another girl."  
  
" Sookie?" Luke suggested.  
  
" You want the woman just weeks apart from having given birth to run?"  
  
" Bad idea?" Luke asked furrowing his brows. Lorelai replied snarkily.  
  
" You try running after passing a watermelon through your-"  
  
" MOM."  
  
" What about Paris?" Lorelai suggested, trying to change the subject to a more appropiate topic while grinning at Luke's embarrassment.  
  
" Paris with a big wooden bat?"  
  
" Good point.... And Lane's away." The three of them stood thinking for a while.  
  
" I guess I could ask Nicole." Luke suggested.  
  
" Oh. Yeah. Good idea." Lorelai nodded into her coffee mug.  
  
" Are you two sure that you want to do this?"  
  
" Of course. It'll be just fine."  
  
" Alright. I'll go grab you two some coffee." Luke headed back to grab the pot.  
  
" Hey, Luke. One more question." Lorelai followed him up to the counter.  
  
" Yeah." Luke looked back at Lorelai with a look of suspicion on his face.  
  
" How do you play softball exactly?"  
  
" I knew it." Luke dropped his head into his hands.  
  
" I just need the basics."  
  
" Dyou know what? Just meet me at the field tomorrow afternoon, around 2."  
  
" Why?"  
  
" I'll teach you how to play. I'd rather not be embarrassed too much by Taylor's team. He's bringing in ringers."  
  
" Me too. Thanks Luke."  
  
" This is more for me than you."  
  
" You're so sweet."  
  
" Yeah sure."  
  
" Hey,uh...you know, what if." Lorelai looked at him with a fakely innocent face.  
  
" Bring Rory with you too."  
  
" Perfect. And could you bring us over some of that nice pretty pie you make so nice when you get a minute?"  
  
" Yeah, I'll be right over." Luke gave her a little smile, almost like he was wondering just where everything about her came from. Lorelai grinned and watched him for a moment, then gave herself a little smile and walked back to the table.  
  
" We've got a private lesson with the softball master tomorrow at 2."  
  
" Oh, I can only be there until 3:30. I promised Paris that'd go over my notes from lit class with her at 4, cause she has a session with Terrence at 1:30, and one at 6."  
  
" Terrence-life-coach- Terrence?"  
  
" Don't judge."  
  
" Awwwww....well , I guess you can just join us for the beginning. I however, have a feeling that I'm going to need as much practice as I can."  
  
" Here's your pie." Luke put the plates down and refilled their coffee cups.  
  
" Thanks coach." Rory and Lorelai grinned, grabbing forks, but Luke just rolled his eyes and sighed. 


	2. What time do I WANT you there Well, are ...

Rory scanned the diner hall with her plate of waffles in hand and spotted Marty sitting with all his friends.  
  
" Oh hey Rory. How'd it going?"  
  
" Good for me, but I think your syrup is overflowing."  
  
"OH! Thanks." Marty looked down at the massive puddle of syrup drowning his waffles, and lifted up the bottle " That's okay, I like a lot of syrup...maybe not this much, but..."  
  
" So I was just wondering, if you were going home for Thanksgiving?"  
  
" Yup, all the way to Cambridge." Marty nodded.  
  
" You live in the same city as Harvard, but you go to Yale?"  
  
" It's almost sacrilegious."  
  
" Well, then you're not that far away. I just wanted to know if maybe you wanted to come play softball with me on Friday? Work off some of that thanksgiving dinner?"  
  
" You play softball?"  
  
" My last class is at 9, then I'm getting lessons at 2. It's just one of those things. See, I live in this really small...um...eccentric town? And we're having our first annual charity softball tournament, and Luke, he the owner of the diner I go to with my mom-"  
  
" I've heard rumours about the coffee there."  
  
" Without a doubt the best in the world. So, we were short a player, and you said that you played little league and Luke said I could bring a friend from school. SO..."  
  
" Sure. Sounds great."  
  
" Okay....I'll get details and get back to you." Rory nodded.  
  
" Alright. There's no uniforms or anything?"  
  
" Do you own any plaid?"  
  
" Um...." Marty loked a little confused, but Rory just smiled.  
  
" Nevermind. I'll get details."  
  
" Okay. See ya Rory."  
  
" Bye.  
  
*************************  
  
Luke walked out of the kitchen with four full plates and almost collided with someone.  
  
" Hey! Get out of my- Nicole?" Luke looked up from his plates in surprise. " What are you doing her? It's Monday?"  
  
" Yeah, I know, but the firm decided to take this week off. Turns out the entire research department turned up sick, so the firm's going take the week off so they can recover, then we can just work twice as hard next week."  
  
" Did you want to do something today?" Luke looked over his shoulder as he placed the food on a table.  
  
" No, I have to go into Hartford and do one last meeting with a client this morning. I'm just here to say hello." She leaned up and gave him a kiss. "But I wouldn't object if you wanted to do something later, maybe this afternoon."  
  
" Oh, right."  
  
" What's wrong?" Nicole questioned, seeing a troubled look fall across Luke's face.  
  
" It's nothing. Just, you remember I told you about that tournament we're playing in last night?"  
  
" Softball on Friday, of course."  
  
" I just promised that I'd teach Lorelai and Rory how to play."  
  
" Lorelai." Nicole's eyes hardened a little and Luke sighed.  
  
" Yes Lorelai, and Rory. She's my friend Nicole, I'm just trying to help them out. And our team. You know what, why don't you come with us. It'll be...fun."  
  
" So much fun." Nicole said, with subtle sarcasm.  
  
" Come on. I want you to come." Luke tried to convince her. Nicole looked him in the eye with a determining glare, then her eyes softened, and she nodded.  
  
" Alright. I should get going then."  
  
" Have a good meeting." Luke gave her a quick kiss and Nicole smiled back at him and kissed him again, for a little longer, which made Luke a little uncomfortable.  
  
" Goodbye Luke." Luke waved and went back towards the kitchen. " Luke?" He turned back and saw her at the doorway. " What time do you want me there?"  
  
" What time do I want you there?"  
  
" At the field?"  
  
" Oh...4 o'clock." Nicole nodded and waved goodbye. Luke waved back and continued to the kitchen. Nicole walked out towards her car and saw Lorelai coming down the street. Nicole smiled politely, almost too politely as she passed. Lorelai could have sworn that Nicole looked positively triumphant at something, but just shrugged it off and continued to the diner.  
  
*********************************  
  
" So it looks like you two have...almost... got the basics of catching and throwing."  
  
" Throw AT the person!" Rory piped up.  
  
" Stand infront of the ball to catch, not dive out of the way when it comes towards you!" Lorelai chorused, nodding her curly pigtails.  
  
" Very basics."  
  
" Hey! We've been working hard for our money! So hard for it...." Luke just rolled his eyes and ignored Lorelai.  
  
" And Rory, you've got the basics of hitting."  
  
" Yeah, you only missed that last one by less than two feet." Lorelai teased her.  
  
" At lest when I throw I can keep both feet on the ground instead of hopping around like some cracked up rabbit on speed." Rory retorted.  
  
" Whoa." Luke stood in between them as they pretended to be offended and to try and attack each other. " Hey Ror, it's almost 3:30." Rory glanced at her watch.  
  
" Oh, right, I guess I should get going." Rory gave her mom a hug, and gave Luke a quick hug too.  
  
" Uh, drive safe." He mumbled, a little surprised.  
  
" I will. I'll be home for dinner Mom. Rescheduled pizza and movie night is still on?"  
  
" Of course. Have fun with Paris hun." Rory rolled her eyes and waved. Luke and Lorelai watched until she drove off , then turned around and looked at each other.  
  
" I guess we should get back to work." Lorelai suggested.  
  
" Sure, why don't we start you on batting?"  
  
" Okay!" Lorelai ran over to home plate and Luke followed, carrying the bat.  
  
" So, let's just see what you've got. I'm not going to throw yet, I just wanta watch you while you swing." He handed her the bat.  
  
" Dirty!" Lorelai gave Luke a challenging grin, but he just scowled and flushed up a little.  
  
" Swing the bat." He grumbled, stepping back until he felt that he would be safe, just in case she swung to wildly, or let go of the bat or something.  
  
" Fine fine, don't get all huffy on me." Lorelai grabbed the bat and gripped it high up the handle, standing with her legs completely straight. She swung back a little bit, then forwards, around to her opposite shoulder, losing her balance and stumbling forwards. She threw her arms out to balance herself, caught herself, and steadied herself back on her feet. She brushed the hair out of her eyes and left a smudge of dirt on her face.  
  
" What are you looking at." She said grumpily. Luke had come over, now that it was safe, to make sure she was okay. He was biting his lip hard, trying not to laugh, but he finally had to let something out, and made a noise that sounded like a chuckle that had been covered with a grunt.  
  
"Fine. Lets see you do better." She shot at him, even though she knew that he obviously could.  
  
" Here, more like this." Luke have her an encouraging pat on her arm, and picked up the bat. He held it further down and bent his knees. Lifting it up above his head, Luke swung through slowly, shifting his weight from his back foot forward onto his front. Lorelai watched the bat, nodding. At least she had started off watching how the bat was moving, but ended up looking at how Luke's arm muscles were tensing and relaxing below his rolled up shirt sleeves when he swang. Luke swung a few more times, slowly, supposedly so that she could see how to do it, but Lorelai was somewhat distracted.  
  
" You got that?" Luke asked over his shoulder  
  
" What? Those?" Lorelai was startled out of her gaze. " No, not even close, I've got arms like pipecleaners. I should probably join a gym in Hartford or something. Do you have to work out or something for those?" Lorelai stammered, then realized what she had said during her nervousness-induced spiel. She started to become embarrassed and confused, hoping Luke hadn't noticed her staring as his muscles, or how her ears were turning an uncomfortable pink right now. Luke stared at her for a minute, confused.  
  
" What are you talking about now?"  
  
" Um, I was just....watching...you know...the bat, and then your arms and...the whole muscles when swinging, cause they move when you move, and there big, so I could see them move and...Hey, do you feel like some water. My mouth seems a little dry. I could definitely go for some water." She tried to find the escape pod from this awkward situation. Luke frowned at her again  
  
" No...I'm fine, you can have some though. There's a couple of bottles in the bag."  
  
" No, second thought, I should be fine. Why don't we get back to the whole bat swinging, ball hitting thing. Why don't you go far over there, away from me, and throw the ball very gently in my direction." Luke nodded in agreement, still staring at her in a strange way, and walked about ten yards away from her. Luke tossed the ball around in his hand.  
  
" Ready?"  
  
" As I'll ever be." Luke threw her the softest underhand pitch he could. She watched it as carefully as she could, but her grip was back up the handle, and her feet were too close together, and when she swung the bat forwards, which she hadn't brought back at all, she completely missed the pitch and stepped forwards as she lost her balance. The ball hit the dirt and rolled up to the chain link fence behind home plate.  
  
" It was better?" She tried, but Luke shook his head.  
  
" I'd just show you how to bunt, but then again you'd have to be able to run fast."  
  
" I don't want to bunt! I want to swing! You said you'd teach me how."  
  
" Okay, then you might want to start by bringing the bat behind your head, or behind you at all."  
  
" I can't, it'll hurt. I don't bend in that way."  
  
" How do you bend?" Luke asked incredulously, to which Lorelai raised her eyebrow suggestively. Luke crossed his arms, but the corners of his mouth twitched. Lorelai grinned, a tiny little spark getting warm in her stomach at his minute response, and ignoring the question of exactly why it had, started to pout playfully.  
  
" I'm not inflexible, if that's what you're thinking Danes; my muscles are just resistant to change."  
  
" And that makes them different from the rest from the rest of your body because..."  
  
" Hey I don't hate change! I like change...some kinds of change."  
  
" Such as?"  
  
" I like good change. Good change is good. And safe change. You can't go wrong with safe change either."  
  
" So you are afraid."  
  
" Hey, this from the man who's worn the same pattern, hairstyle and facial expression since I met him."  
  
"Hey, I bought a new bed."  
  
" Wow, you are a wild and crazy, throw-caution-to-the-wind kinda guy. Did you splurge on the twin?"  
  
" It's a queen."  
  
" Hmmm, queen means commitment." Lorelai teased him, tugging on the front of his shirt.  
  
" It does not." Luke scowled, again.  
  
" Does to. It means your looking for a woman to fit your mattress description."  
  
" So, what, I had lower standards when I just had a single mattress?"  
  
" No, honey, that mattress fit your description." Lorelai grinned.  
  
" Very funny."  
  
" Do you think secluded uber-monk is a mattress size too?" Luke shook his head and poked her in the stomach with the end of the bat.  
  
" Here, do you want to get back to the hitting."  
  
" As long as it's you hitting on me." Lorelai shot back. Part of her hand folded overtop of his as she took the bat, but Lorelai pulled it away quickly, like it had burned her, or surprised her. Lorelai's skin was tingling for some reason, and she shook her hand, trying to get it to go away. Luke gave her another strange look. He was trying to figure out whether or not she was still just play flirting. He had been getting a lot more signals, or something, maybe, what was that word...vibes? from her today, more than the usually teasing stuff at the diner. It was probably just the fresh air. She probably wasn't used to it or something. It was going to her head. Or maybe something was going to his....or both of theirs.  
  
" Why don't we start again."  
  
" Yeah, very good idea. Swinging the bat now." Lorelai turned around awkwardly and gripped the bat. Luke sighed at her hand placement, trying to get things back to normal, but very reluctantly.  
  
" There's your first problem."  
  
" What?"  
  
" Your hands. They're in the wrong place. Your left hand should be down farther than your right. Move your left down along that tape."  
  
" Like this?"  
  
" That's your right."  
  
" So more like this?"  
  
" Yeah." Luke smiled." Now just bring it back. Like this." He took the end of the bat and pulled it back.  
  
" Owowowowow! What was that for?" Luke sighed impatiently, clenching his fists. Lorelai's hands were twisted backwards, and her arms were still at her sides.  
  
" Okay, my fault. I should have been more clear about this. Bring the bat back like this while moving your arms." Luke explained very slowly.  
  
" Yeah, okay Mr.Obvious. I just don't know how to do it. Where are my arms supposed to go? It's so uncomfortable. I don't get this stupid game." Luke stepped back and looked at Lorelai leaning dejectedly on the bat. He didn't like it when she looked defeated around him, so he tried to smile in a way he though might be encouraging, took a deep breath and walked behind her. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at Luke unsurely.  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
" I have an idea. You...don't mind right?" Lorelai though he sounded almost nervously, but laughed it off.  
  
" Whatever will help, I'll try it."  
  
"Okay." Luke, very cautiously, wrapped his arms around Lorelai's so that they ran parallel. He put his hands along the bat.  
  
"Then just put your hands on top of mine and just do what I do."  
  
" Good idea Luke." Lorelai looked back over her shoulder and found her face just inches from Luke's. She swallowed hard and tried to joke to break the silence that had fallen, and glanced back down at the bat. " At least this way I can keep track of where your hands are." She could practically feel Luke's body temperature rise in embarrassment. Mind you, the fact that she could feel his body heat was making her own temperature rise as well, for some reason. There were just friends. It was just a reaction to the exercise probably...  
  
" So, just swing back like this. Just, do like I am." Lorelai wrapped her hands over top of Luke's and her body temperature rose a few more degrees. Luke pulled the bat back and held it there for a second. " And then swing through." He swung the bat forward slowly, their arms sliding across each other. Luke's breath caught a little bit, but Lorelai started to lose her balance and he dropped the bat to catch her around the waist.  
  
" Whoa there."  
  
" I guess I can't keep control of your hands all the time."  
  
" Yeah, sometimes they've got a mind of their own." Luke said sarcastically. Lorelai glanced over her shoulder again, an eyebrow raised. Luke coughed awkwardly and picked the bat back up.  
  
" You've...your losing your....uh, your balance, cause your legs are too straight, and close together. You've got to get down."  
  
" Excuse me?"  
  
" Get down...closer...to the ground. Bend your knees a bit. Here...a little more. A little more. Good. You know.....this isn't too..." Luke swallowed. He was leaning over her shoulder a bit, his forearms around her waist and hands on her thighs, so that he could pushed on them to let her know how much to bend. " It's not uncomfortable.. or strange for you?"  
  
" What? No, no, it's fine. What do I do next?" Lorelai waved the thoughts away and took the bat again. Actually, she had been wondering why it wasn't. Why having Luke so close to her, so close that he tickled the back of her neck between her pigtails when he breathed, was...well....almost natural feeling.  
  
" So just put your feet a little farther apart, and keep the flex in your knees, and swing." Okay, not almost. Totally. Think cold showers, grandparents, take her mind of the hot shiver up her spine, puppies, pie, Luke. No, not Luke! Why not Luke anymore? No Luke, bad Luke. Think...think...Friday night dinners, that old guy from Paris with the pipe and the.....ewwwwww...boring stuff....taxes...bridge...golf on TV...football...baseball. Not baseball. Baseball was bad. Or was it good.  
  
" So dyou think this will be okay?" They had swung back and forth a few times before Luke said something. " I mean, is the swing more comfortable?"  
  
" Yeah, this is pretty comfortable." Lorelai moved the bat back and forth a little, her hands still wrapped over Luke's.  
  
" You think you can get used to this?" Lorelai shifted a little more into his arms, a little closer to him, and Luke wrapped his arms a little tighter.  
  
" Yeah, I'm pretty sure."  
  
" So a good change?"  
  
" A good change." Lorelai took a risk and looked over her shoulder at Luke, who looked right back at her.  
  
" How about a safe change?"  
  
" Me with a bat is safe?" Lorelai grinned a little.  
  
" Okay, definitely not a safe change. So, you think you're finally ready for some changes with a little risk?" He ask quietly, almost gruffly, looking down.  
  
" If your ready to risk my risking it." Luke looked back up and nodded a little bit. Lorelai could feel his chest tighten against her back as he held his breath. She felt her own breathing speed up. Lorelai looked Luke right in his eyes and felt her heart, and his pounding hard." Hey...Luke? Did you ever, maybe, wonder what would happen.....if you....and"  
  
" Me and?" Luke almost whispered, wrapping his arms closer to her. Maybe he had been right about the vibe things.  
  
" You and....you and" Lorelai swallowed hard. "....and....m-Nicole." Lorelai looked out past Luke and her face fell suddenly. Luke looked confused.  
  
" Nicole?" He said, maybe a bit too obviously disappointedly for his own future likings.  
  
" Nicole. Nicole as in right behind us, about to get out of her car, not looking to happy about her boyfriend with his arms wrapped around another woman Nicole."  
  
" NICOLE." Luke's arms dropped from Lorelai like he had been shocked by electricity in her skin. He shoved his hands into his pockets, then glanced over at Nicole, who was walking across the field and waved.  
  
" Yeah."  
  
" What time is it? Crap. Lor, do me a huge favour. Tell her you just got here. I kinda told her accidentally that I wasn't meeting you until 4. And with this whole thing looking like it probably did, it's probably a good idea she doesn't think we've been here for a few hours beforehand."  
  
" Sure. Of course Luke." Lorelai shrugged and smiled weakly. Luke smiled back, very grimly, and walked out to meet Nicole. He gave Nicole a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, thinking guiltily that the way that it probably looked to her, was exactly the way that it was. At least for him. Which, not that he knew, was exactly what Lorelai was thinking, standing awkwardly at home base while Nicole protectively snaked an arm around Luke, tossing a glare at Lorelai while whispering something to Luke. Luke just answered, and tried not to look at either of them. 


	3. The MVP, The Agony Of Iced Tea Spoons, D...

Nicole had left her meeting a few minutes early, changing into her $250 designer sweat suit before starting off towards Stars Hollow. She wanted to get there before Lorelai did, and wanted to make sure that she had Luke's attention before Little Miss Scene Stealer made her entrance. She checked the clock on the dashboard as she drove past the diner and saw Lane working the lunch shift. Luke had just hired her after he had convinced frog boy to stop coming in, especially because he didn't work there anymore. 3:45. It would be just fine, especially because Lorelai was ALWAYS late. She pulled around the corner, and inhaled sharply. Luke was already at the field......and so was Lorelai. Trust Lorelai Gilmore to be early the one time in her life today. As she drove up she saw Lorelai look over her shoulder and whisper something to Luke, and move even closer into Luke's arms. She was slightly less than pleased that she was in his arms in the first place , but closer was unacceptable. Nicole's face was burning and she took a slow, steady breathe as she glared at the two of them. The car rolled deliberately to a stop and she climbed out. As she started walking quickly towards them, she noticed Lorelai glance up. Suddenly, Luke looked over and they flew apart. Luke waved at her, said something quietly to Lorelai while glancing back at Nicole, and started to hurry across the field to meet her.  
  
" Hey Nicole." Luke gave her a hug, but she didn't respond. She could still smell her on his shirt. He gave her a really light kiss on the cheek and backed off, walking beside her towards Lorelai.  
  
" Are you alright Luke? I mean, I hope I didn't interrupt anything?" Nicole said, with an air of fake innocence. Luke flushed a little and mumbled.  
  
" No, I was just teaching her how to bat."  
  
" I had no idea you were such a hands on teacher. I should have arranged for some more...private lessons." Luke just swallowed, but Nicole turned to him again, furious on the inside at him for this, even more at Lorelai, but smooth and placid on the outside. She had her courtroom face on and nothing could faze her now.  
  
" Are you sure you're feeling alright Luke? You just seem nervous. Oh, I don't know, like I caught you doing something you shouldn't be...Lorelai. How are you today?"  
  
" Hey Nicole. I'm fine, everything's fine. Good in fact. Everything's good. Very good."  
  
" I though I might join you guys for your lesson, brush up a bit before the game on Friday."  
  
" You've played before?"  
  
" I was the MVP of my high school team."  
  
" Of course you were -I mean-oh really? Wow, that's....uh....good." Lorelai was fumbling with her hands. For some reason she always felt that her hands and feet had grown 4 sizes whenever she was around Nicole. She was so calm, so collected, so calculating. She was a whole bunch of c's, but no Lorelai at all. Maybe that's why they didn't seem to mesh at all. Rory, Sookie, Jackson, Luke, even Michel had a little bit of Lorelai-ishness in them. Even Rachel had it. The same need to run, the wanderlust, except Rachel's had been physical, not so emotional like Lorelai. Nicole was just so foreign, and it made Lorelai feel clumsy and awkward. And Luke, he looked just about as much as a scolded puppy could look while still looking like her Luke. And for some reason she didn't like that, didn't like that Nicole had done that.  
  
" So where's Rory?" Luke looked a little more panicky, thinking Nicole would find out.  
  
" Oh...she had to cancel. She had a lecture rescheduled for this afternoon." Lorelai lied.  
  
" What a shame."  
  
" Uh, yeah...."  
  
" So....should we begin?"  
  
" Okay..." Lorelai felt like she wanted to run far, far away. But she didn't have a good excuse, and she knew that if she just left, it would just make everything worse. " Why don't we- oh, give me a minute." Lorelai heard her cell phone ring from over by the fence, giving thanks early as she ran to grab it.  
  
" Hello?"  
  
" Mom?"  
  
" Rory honey, thank you so much. Uber awkward Nicole situation."  
  
" That's why I called. I stopped at home on the way, so I left late, and I saw her driving there, and I know she's a little sensitive about you and Luke being friends, so I thought I'd call just in case you needed an emergency extraction, but I guess I'm to late for a pre-emptive strike."  
  
" Yes, but just in time for saving from the most awkward game of pick up softball ever. Thanks babe, I owe you huge."  
  
" Details tonight?"  
  
" Sure."  
  
"Bye Mom."  
  
" I love you forever!" Lorelai hung up the phone, and walked back over to when Nicole and Luke had been waiting in a heavy silence.  
  
" That was Sookie. She says there a minor emergency at the inn, so I gotta get going."  
  
" Oh, what a shame." Nicole said unemotionally.  
  
" Okay, well, I'll just be going. And I'll be seeing you two later. Thanks for the lesson, I guess." Lorelai waved and tried to give a little smile, but as soon as she turned around she frowned and hurried to her car, anxious to get home.  
  
" Why don't we get a little practice in before the diner fills up for dinner." Nicole suggested. Luke nodded distractedly and glanced back at Lorelai as she sped away, then refocused on Nicole. " I mean, yeah. Yeah, of course."  
  
*************************************  
  
" Pizza?" Rory and Lorelai closed the front door and took the box over to the coffee table.  
  
" Check."  
  
" Movie?"  
  
" Robin Hood Men In Tights."  
  
" Mel Brooks, excellant choice."  
  
" Thank you."  
  
" Your welcome."  
  
" So are you going to tell me what happened this afternoon."  
  
" Oh, well, nothing, I just had this weird-it was nothing." Lorelai shook her head.  
  
" Weird nothing good, weird nothing bad?  
  
" Weird nothing weird."  
  
" So good weird?"  
  
" More towards good than bad, but still mostly definitively weird."  
  
" Why so weird?"  
  
" Luke weird."  
  
" Ohhhh."  
  
" What'd that mean?"  
  
" Luke good weird?" Rory grinned.  
  
" No, Luke better-option-than-being-beaten-to-death-with-iced-tea-spoons weird." Lorelai said, making sure she was very specific with her wording.  
  
" Can we stop saying weird."  
  
" Good idea."  
  
" So what happened." The two sat down cross legged on the couch  
  
" Well...I don't really know. You left to study..."  
  
" So if anything bad comes from this the blame's going to be on me?"  
  
" Of course. So Luke was trying to teach me to bat...aaand I couldn't get it, so he just helped me by showing me how."  
  
" Showing you how how?"  
  
" I put my hands over his on the bat, so anyways-"  
  
" So he was beside you?"  
  
" Sure." Lorelai shifted uncomfortable and got up to grab something else to eat.  
  
" Or maybe?"  
  
" Do you want some cookies? They're the disgusting ones that are supposed to be chewy but are actually just not cooked. I think- AUGH! Don't creep up on your mother like that. You'll give me a heart attack."  
  
" I'll blame it on the soft cookies...Luke was behind you wasn't he?" Rory narrowed her eyes and pointed accusingly.  
  
" What?" Lorelai knocked some of the cookies across the counter, glanced at Rory and tried to look innocent as she collected them back up.  
  
" He was! And his arms were around you so that both your hands were on the bat, and then you had a moment and then Nicole showed up and that's the real reason it was awkward!" Rory gasped, overjoyed that she had figured it out. Lorelai looked at her astonished.  
  
" What are you, the clairvoyant satan child?" Lorelai grabbed the plate and fled out of the room with Rory following behind her. Halfway down the hallway Rory gasped again and pointed at her.  
  
" OH MY GO- You LIKED it!!!!!!" Lorelai changed directions and brushed past Rory.  
  
" No more crazy talk little girl. Mommy's going to have to take away your crack."  
  
" You had a moment with Luke, and you liked it and now you're all pissed off at Nicole for breaking it up! And now you're going to go into full fledged flirt off at the softball game to get back at her aren't you." Lorelai gasped, turned around and stared at Rory.  
  
"SATANIC- I mean, NO, I'm not. I was just angry at her for making Luke feel bad about a PERFECTLY innocent situation." Rory raised her eyebrows as Lorelai pushed the movie in and sat down on the couch. They both knew Lorelai was saying it to try and convince herself, even if Lorelai wasn't completely conscious of the fact.  
  
" Suuure."  
  
" Watch the movie."  
  
" Watch out Nicole."  
  
" I was serious about the crack."  
  
" Where'd all the love go mom? Maybe-"  
  
" If you even mention....."  
  
*************************************  
  
" Dinner number three."  
  
" So thankful Sookie had Thanksgiving brunch this year."  
  
" I'll second that thanks."  
  
" Luke's was good. He's having dinner with Nicole tonight right?" Rory probed.  
  
" Luke's is always good." Lorelai ignored the second portion as the got out of the Jeep.  
  
" I can't believe Grandma is letting us out of Friday Night Dinner."  
  
" That's only because she hijacked Thursday night for an extra long turkey induced torture session."  
  
" Are you going to ring the bell?"  
  
" Five more minutes mom?" Lorelai whined.  
  
" Faster you ring, faster we go in, faster we get out." Lorelai looked at Rory then started pushing the button feverishly. They could hear the click of heels running inside.  
  
" You're making the maid run!"  
  
" It's not like she going to be here next week to get back at us."  
  
" Good point." The maid opened the door, taking their coats, and Richard walked up to meet them.  
  
" Good evening Lorelai, Rory."  
  
" Hi Grandpa."  
  
" Happy thanksgiving Dad."  
  
" You had a good drive I'm sure?"  
  
" Of course."  
  
" Emily's already in the sitting room. Jason's there too."  
  
" J-Jason?" Lorelai stopped for a moment. " I had lunch with him last Thursday and he didn't say anything about it."  
  
" Yes, well, as it turns out, his father obviously isn't too happy with him, so he wasn't invited to dinner at home. So Emily invited him her."  
  
" You mean you invited him."  
  
" No, Emily. She thought that since you two were...involved, it might be nice to have him over."  
  
" Oh well, this should be...." Lorelai looked back at Rory, who was looking just as surprised. " Should be...I'm just going to go grab a drink."  
  
**********************************  
  
" You okay?"  
  
" Peachy."  
  
" What it going to require in order to salvage the night?"  
  
" A time machine and the entire supply of vodka in Soviet Russia."  
  
" Actually-" Rory started, but decided it would be a better idea not to continue the facts about the amount of vodka in Soviet Russia. " It wasn't that bad."  
  
"Really? What part do you think brightened up the night? When my parents announced that the real reason they let us off Friday night was because they were going to come and watch the softball game? Or maybe when my mother asked if Luke, or rather "that hulking plaid ice man from the diner" would be there , with a bit too much interest and a very much unneeded laugh on your part."  
  
" Sorry about that."  
  
" Or maybe it was Jason's suggestion to then join the procession and come watch me make an idiot of myself tomorrow. Maybe it was the many thousands of sharp, stabbing daggers poking into Jason through the telekinetic abilities of my mother's eye. Or perhaps it was tonight's crowning moment, Mom's announcement that the secret to the stuffing was coconut, which just happens to be the only know substance to man that causes Jason to break out in big, red, scratchy hives."  
  
" Wow it actually was bad."  
  
" I'm going to be the girl at the game with the itchy boyfriend." Lorelai grumped, pulling up in front of their house. 


	4. You can dress me up but you can't take m...

Lorelai's alarm clock went off and she rolled over. 7:30. What kind of ungodly hour is 7:30 on a holiday.....But her and Rory had to be at the field by 8:30 for the tournament to start and Marty was going to be at the house at 8:15. She groaned and rolled out of bed, stumbling down towards the bathroom and threw a shoe at Rory's door along the way. She heard a grunt from inside and proceeded to the shower. Luke, Nicole, Digger, Emily and Richard, all of Stars Hollow. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. Lorelai groaned again as thoughts crowed her head. This was going to be a long, long day.  
  
*************************  
  
The knock on the door shook them both out of the stupor they were in. Rory lifted her head up from the table and blinked. The knock came again.  
  
" Go away!" Lorelai yelled sleepily, her head still on the table.  
  
" Rory?" A voice called out unsurely from behind the door.  
  
" Marty." Lorelia mumbled.  
  
" He's late."  
  
" He's a smart boy. Get the door."  
  
" Get up."  
  
" I'm getting." Lorelai crawled out of the chair and went to grab their bags from the living room, while Rory went to the door, and pulled it open.  
  
" Morning Rory."  
  
" Hey Marty, my mom's just grabbing the bags now."  
  
" Did I wake you guys up?"  
  
" Sort of. We were sleeping on the kitchen table."  
  
" All night?"  
  
" Just now."  
  
" You've got crumbs in your face." Mary pointed out the pop tart crumbs embedded in her cheek.  
  
" One of the many hazards of sleeping on a kitchen table."  
  
" Am I late?"  
  
" A little?"  
  
" Is that bad?"  
  
" Do you value your life?"  
  
" Um, yes?"  
  
" It's a very good thing."  
  
" Good."  
  
" Roryyy?" Lorelai's voice came out from the living room." Give your poor weak mother a hand with the bags!"  
  
" Do you want help with that?" Marty peered into the house, but Rory laughed.  
  
" No, here, take my keys. You can get the car started. We'll be out in a minute."  
  
"Alright." Marty took the keys and popped the trunk, switching his bag over from his own car. Rory wandered back into the living room and loaded up with several bags, containing clothes, food, general first aid supplies, including numerous ice packs, and a large box. She started to follow Lorelai out to the car and caught sight of what she was wearing from behind.  
  
" Hey Mom? You know how we were talking yesterday? What about Jason?"  
  
" What about Jason what?"  
  
" Won't if be hard to compete in the Nicole/Lorelai flirt off with Jason around?"  
  
" He's not going to be there until around 11, and can only stay until 3."  
  
" But what if Nicole tries to get some hardcore competition in while he's there and you can't fight back. That'll be a major disadvantage."  
  
"It doesn't matter, because there is not flirt off."  
  
" But what if she starts sitting on his lap or something."  
  
"Once again, no flirt off."  
  
" Or making out under the bleachers."  
  
"Yale has made my little girl dirty! There is no flirt off."  
  
" Liar!"  
  
" I'm not lying."  
  
" You did see what you put on this morning, right?" Lorelai looked over her clothes.  
  
" So?"  
  
" So you're going to make sure that Luke sees, and then it might as well just light up in neon saying 'I'm a big distraction for Luke to get back at Nicole breaking up our moment.'"  
  
" You're gonna have to stop with the moment stuff."  
  
" Intense eternal blending of souls during a brief physical passage of time?"  
  
" Making it poetic does not make it better. Now hurry up Missy."  
  
" One last question."  
  
" Shoot Dexter."  
  
" Exactly what wattage are you setting the neon sign at. Is this going to require sunglasses, or merely a turning of the hat to divert rays."  
  
" You are very lucky I love you. Now scoot. Lets go." Lorelai scolded, pushing her out the front door.  
  
" I still don't see how you having free range and an excuse to flirt openly with Luke is going to leave Nicole begging Luke for forgiveness."  
  
" That's because you're not in my head."  
  
" This has nothing to do with Nicole. She's just your excuse."  
  
" I thought you decided against that psychology course for the sake of our mental health."  
  
"You've got the hots for the diner boy."  
  
" I don't like athletic Rory. Athletic Rory's mean."  
  
"You want to kisssss him, love him and hug himmmm."  
  
" Ewwwww! Eww. Stop that. Okay, no more Sandra Bullock, I don't care if the character is us butchified. That was definitely in no way congenial. Ugh. I haven't even had my coffee yet."  
  
" You could go ask Luke, I'm sure he'd give it to you."  
  
" RORY!"  
  
" What?" Rory looked at her for a minute , trying to think of what she had just said. Her face suddenly contracted into a look of disgust.  
  
" EWWWW! MOM! That was by far the dirtiest and most disturbing thought in the history of precoffee discussions. Ew. Get in the car. And no more talking. EWWWW. IT'S LUKE!"  
  
" You started it." Lorelai grumped, climbing into the backseat of Rory's car as Marty gave them a strange look.  
  
*************************  
  
Luke climbed out of his truck and walked up behind Lorelai and Rory. They were crowded, along with the rest of the team and a hesitant Marty, around the bench, pulling on jersey shirts.  
  
" Hey you two. What did you do now?" He nodded at the box they were pulling the shirts out of.  
  
" We made uniforms!" Rory exclaimed, pulling a shirt out of the box for Luke. The shirts just had a grey body, but they actually had managed to find a jersey with green and black plaid sleeves.  
  
" And everyone's got nicknames on the back." Lorelai grinned, looking at Luke.  
  
" Where did you find these?" Luke was inspecting his with a mix of incredulousness, disbelief, and a little bit of fear.  
  
" We scoured every shirt shop from here to Seattle. Turn it over!"  
  
" Iceman?" The two of them giggled.  
  
" Like Val Kilmer. From Top Gun."  
  
" And Emily Gilmore. From Hartford."  
  
" You're mother's nickname is Iceman." Luke looked suspiciously at Lorelai. Emily Gilmore didn't strike him at the nickname type.  
  
" No, my mother's nickname is something I'd rather not say in the company of the little ones. My mother's nickname for you is The Ice Man, or That Man From The Diner, or The One Named After The Big Dog. But those were too hard to put on a t-shirt." Luke smiled, looking amused.  
  
" I get the diner and I kind of understand the weird Great Dane-Danes reference, but what's with the Ice Man?"  
  
" The first time she met you, you were bringing ice to Rory's sixteenth."  
  
" Of right. So you're mother has a nickname for me."  
  
" Three." Lorelai replied and Luke nodded, almost approvingly. The two of them smiled at each other for a moment before Rory coughed awkwardly.  
  
" So, what's everyone else?" Luke asked, trying to cover the awkward silence.  
  
" Well, Marty's is Naked Guy, of course." Marty looked a little embarrassed as Rory spun him around so that Luke could see.  
  
" Don't worry. You'll get used to it. They've been doing this to me for years."  
  
" It gets worse?"  
  
" This is only the beginning my friend."  
  
" Hey, we're still standing here!"  
  
" And we've got Julius Salad."  
  
" Cause Caesar works with either." Lorelai said in a sing-songy voice. Luke rolled his eyes.  
  
"Davy Crockett." Rory announced.  
  
" For that unfortunate incident with the raccoon last year when he was cleaning out his attic." All three of them winced, remembering the scene that had played out in front of the diner.  
  
" I'll bet even the real Davy never had the courage to wear a living coon skin cap."  
  
" I didn't do it voluntarily." Dave grumbled from the bench, rubbing the bald patch on the back of his head.  
  
" Second last, we have Thankfully Not The Steve From The Park."  
  
" Long enough?" Luke grunted. " What if Park Steve sees that?"  
  
" He won't see it." Lorelai said confidently.  
  
" Why not?"  
  
" He's at the park. He's always at the park. That's the reason we call him Park Steve and why he gives Rory the heebe jeebes." Lorelai explained to him in her signature it's- painfully-obvious-to-me-so-there's-no-reason-it- shouldn't-be-to-you-too voice.  
  
" Of course. Wait. What about Kirk." Luke craned his neck, trying to catch sight of the back of Kirk's shirt.  
  
" Hey Kirk! Turn back around." The four of them stared at the shirt for a minute.  
  
"......Kirk? His nickname is Kirk?"  
  
" He chose it himself."  
  
" You chose Kirk?"  
  
" What's wrong with Kirk."  
  
" Never mind."  
  
" I like Kirk." Luke rolled his tongue around in his mouth, and counted to ten in his head, then just ignored Kirk.  
  
" And you two?" Rory and Lorelai grinned and turned to the box. They pulled out two jerseys, which were light blue with dark blue and grey plaid sleeves, pulled them on and turned around.  
  
" Team Gilmore?" Luke laughed a little. " Showstopper?" He read the smaller lettering below on Rory's shirt.  
  
" For my stunning good looks." Rory posed playfully.  
  
" And her ability to shut down a ballet with a single review!" Lorelai said with her fake TV announcer voice. Marty laughed awkwardly.  
  
" I read that one. I mean, there's rapier wit, but you really carpet bombed the hippo."  
  
" Your not helping. I'm never going to live that review down am I."  
  
" I'd just hope you never have a roll over the band of your bra missy."  
  
" Moving on now."  
  
" What's yours Lorelai?" Luke couldn't see anymore lettering on the back of her shirt, but Lorelai grinned mischievously.  
  
" Farther south. They did sweatpants too." Rory rolled her eyes as Lorelai lifted the back of her shirt up and exposed her nickname printed a la Juicy style. Luke swallowed and felt his ears turn hot.  
  
" Trafficstopper?" He said gruffly, refusing to look her directly in the eyes. Lorelai just raised her eyebrow at him and grinned. Rory saw this and grabbed Marty's arm.  
  
" And Lorelai Gilmore throws the ceremonial opening pitch. Why don't we just go...you know...over there..." Rory pointed vaguely towards the bleachers and dragged him away.  
  
" What's that all about?" Marty asked curiously, looking back at Luke and Lorelai.  
  
"I'll explain later. It's one of those Stars Hollow things, like the lack of a good pancake at Al's Pancake World, or the freakish amount of porcelain cat figurines per capita. You don't question it. You just have to accept it, and move on."  
  
" HOW much time do you spend with Paris?"  
  
" You're right. Too much."  
  
********  
  
" Looks like I can't keep track of your eyes all the time either." Lorelai scolded Luke back behind the bench.  
  
" Hey, you're the one who printed words on your pants."  
  
" And you're the one who took ten seconds to read one word. What's wrong, Hooked On Phonics didn't work for you?"  
  
" Hey, where'd Rory go? I brought some coffee, but I left it in the truck."  
  
" You wouldn't be trying to change the subject? Or distract me at all would you?" Lorelai tugged at the back of his hat.  
  
" No." Luke grumped, starting towards his truck.  
  
" Someone's feeling embarrassed. Looks like Oogling Man would have been a better nickname."  
  
" I was reading." Luke kept his back to her.  
  
" You liiiiiiked it. Admit it." Lorelai purred playfully and grabbed Luke's hat.  
  
" Hey !"  
  
" Not until you say it!" Luke chased her into the parking lot and around his truck. She stopped when she was at the opposite side of the bed and gave him a challenging look.  
  
" I want it back."  
  
" Come and get it." They stared each other down for a moment, their eyes narrowing. Luke moved left, and Lorelai started to run right, but Luke doubled back quickly and caught her at the front of the truck. Lorelai screamed and started laughing as he grabbed her around the waist and held her tight against his chest with one arm, prying his hat out of her hand with the other. He finally got it out of iron grasp and Lorelai collapsed in laughter, Luke holding her up as he grinned.  
  
" My hearts racing." She grinned, looking up at him.  
  
" Yeah mine too."  
  
" Probably cause you scared to living daylights out of me."  
  
" Maybe the running." Luke said, taking a deep breathe.  
  
" Yeah.....Definitely the running." Lorelai bit her lip, and a little grin started to rise at the corners of her mouth. She snatched out at the hat again, but she lost her balance and fell to the ground as Luke pulled it away, dragging him down with her. He landed on top of her.  
  
" .......Okay, ow........Hey, Mr. Heavy-As-A-Load-Of-Bricks, try not to break your star player before you start the game."  
  
" I think I'll be fine." Luke shot back. Lorelai pretended to be offended and pushed him off. But she pushed to hard and he fell hard on his ribs on the pavement.  
  
" I'm starting to think that you're accident prone." Luke shot, rubbing his side and slowly pulling himself up. He offered Lorelai a hand and she struggled up to her feet, rubbing her nickname.  
  
" More like destined...for accidents that is." The two of them didn't let go of each other's hands for a second.  
  
" Are you ready to play Luke?" Nicole came up beside and wrapped an arm around Luke's waist. Luke looked over, surprised  
  
" Oh, hey, Nicole. I was just helping Lorelai up." Luke let go of her hand, but his finger trailed a little bit along Lorelai's wrist as he pulled away.  
  
" I'm accident prone." Lorelai stuttered, trying to smile.  
  
" I saw." Nicole smiled back, with a bit of a smirk that Luke didn't see. " Now Luke, why don't you take me over to the bench and get me one of these...cute jerseys." Nicole glanced smugly back at Lorelai at the end of the sentence, then linked her arm with Luke and urged him towards the team bench.  
  
" Yeah, of course. We'll see what your nickname is." Luke said absently, starting to walk away with her, but glanced back quickly and saw Lorelai standing awkwardly, biting her lip and staring at the ground, obviously deep...ish..... in thought.  
  
" Hey!" He called back smiling. "Remember, no stealing my hat during the game." Lorelai looked up surprised and started to grin again.  
  
" I bought the hat, I can steal the hat."  
  
" Here." Luke tossed her the keys to his truck, which were missed by Lorelai and hit her in the foot. "The coffee's on the passenger seat. And be nice. Share with Rory. Nice catch too. Good omen for the game." Lorelai smirked and flounced off to the truck before joining Rory and Marty, who were just greeting her parents. Nicole put her hand on Luke's back, pushing his towards the bench.  
  
" Lorelai bought you that hat?" Nicole asked.  
  
" Um, yeah, a while back."  
  
" You know that's the only hat I've ever seen you in."  
  
" It's possible."  
  
" Do you have any other hats?"  
  
" Yeah, a couple."  
  
" And you only wear this one because...."  
  
" It's just a hat."  
  
" It's your Lorelai hat."  
  
" Do you want me to take the hat off or something?"  
  
" No. Nevermind. The hat's fine." Nicole glared at Lorelai's back. " Maybe I'll buy you a new one."  
  
" Uh, yeah, sure. If you want." Luke mumbled, tugging his hat a little further down on his head. 


	5. That's a whole lot of maybes

" So it should be interesting to see Rory and Lorelai play today." Richard announced as the approached the field.  
  
" That could be one word for it. Hilarious could be another."  
  
" Now be nice Emily. It's the effort that counts." Emily raised her eyebrow at him and Richard smiled. "Well, here we are." He pulled the little Mercedes coupe into the parking lot, looking for a suitable spot.  
  
"Really!" Emily exclaimed suddenly, frowning.  
  
" What's wrong?" Richard was slightly distracted, trying to back in between Jackson's truck and Lorelai's jeep.  
  
" Those two, over there by the truck, rolling around on the ground. Do people have no respect for decency these days! Honestly, who in the name of-" Richard turned off the car and went to take a look, but Emily had stopped short.  
  
" What's wrong."  
  
" Nothing. Never mind."  
  
" Is that Lorelai?"  
  
" Of course it's Lorelai. Who else rolls around on the pavement in public places but our daughter." Emily sighed.  
  
" Who was she rolling with?" Richard asked curiously. The two had already stood up. Emily noticed a blonde woman walking towards them and frowned.  
  
" Luke, Danes."  
  
" The man from the diner? I thought that they were just friends." They climbed out of the car and watched as the couple was startled by the arrival of Nicole.  
  
" Hmf." Emily sniffed, looking at the blonde woman wrap her arm around Luke's waist.  
  
" I'm confused. Who is that woman."  
  
" It must be that Nicole woman Lorelai was talking about."  
  
" Oh."  
  
" Yes.....Well." She noticed that Lorelai was looking more and more awkward, and she glared at Nicole's back.  
  
" Grandma!" Emily turned around, startled out of a good glare, and smiled. Rory was approaching with Marty beside her.  
  
" Rory! You look very prepared." Emily smiled at the uniform and the glove that Rory was holding. " Marty. Nice to see you again too."  
  
"Mrs.Gilmore, looks like we have a weird connection going with sporting events." Marty looked back at Rory unsurely, who smiled at him.  
  
" So it would seem." Emily smiled kindly back at Marty as well.  
  
" Why don't I give your grandpa a hand." He looked around to where Richard was unloading several items from the trunk.  
  
" That would be very much appreciated." Richard called out from behind the car.  
  
" I'll help too." Rory followed to the trunk, leaving Emily to watch what was going on between Lorelai and Luke. The pushy blonde had already started to drag Luke away, but he turned around, tossing his keys to Lorelai, who dropped them of course. Emily felt a surge of righteousness when they grinned at each other and Lorelai skipped off to the truck. She had been right about them. It was a shame that neither of them would do anything about it, mind you, with the Stiles boy and the blonde in the way it didn't seem much like anything would be possible. So it would seem, Emily thought to herself as the Lorelai came over, still grinning, with her four full Luke's coffees.  
  
" Hey Mom. Where'd you two come from?" She looked at Emily's impeccable suit.  
  
" From our house. Why?"  
  
" It's just you knew, bleachers, nice clothes...you know you're probably the only woman in he world who can pull off a Chanel pant suit at a small town softball tournament. Just don't blame me when you get gum stuck to your-"  
  
"There's nothing wrong with dressing well Lorelai." Emily sighed haughtily, looking at Lorelai's nickname emblazened across the seat of her pants. " Did you ever get that 'tasty' brassiere that matched your other sweatpants." Emily retorted sharply.  
  
" No," Lorelai returned, raising an eyebrow. " But I did buy a thong that says 'Don't forget to floss.'"  
  
" Honestly Lorelai, people will think you were raised in a trailer."  
  
" I raised Rory in a shed and she turned out fine."  
  
" I just think you should try to be more ladylike. Talking about your underwear and rolling around indecently with men in the parking lot is hardly a proper example for Rory."  
  
" What? Who was I rolling around with?"  
  
" Luke."  
  
" Luke."  
  
" Yes, Luke. I, and probably the rest of your town, saw you two rolling around on top of each other behind his truck."  
  
" Mom! We were just fooling around." Lorelai shook her head unbelievingly.  
  
" Exactly."  
  
" Okay, I set myself up for that one....We were just playing arou-playing with each oth- having a little fu- it was nothing okay?"  
  
" Fine Lorelai." Emily said, signaling that she obviously didn't believe.  
  
" Ugh." Lorelai sighed rubbing one of her temples. The others had returned from behind the car, loaded with packages and baskets.  
  
" Want to lend a hand Mom?" Rory asked from behind her pile.  
  
" Nope, sorry hun, hands are full." Lorelai pointed to the tray of cups.  
  
" Is that Luke's?" Rory looked at it hungrily.  
  
" Special delivery."  
  
" Alright, quick set up everyone. Let's go." Rory hurried off to the sidelines to set up the Gilmore camp.  
  
*******************************  
  
" So what exactly is this Dad?" Lorelai was unfolding a big plastic...something.  
  
" I found it in a catalogue from a friend. It's expandable outdoor furniture. All you have to do it open this valve," Richard pulled open a valve on the big plastic sheet. " And wait a few minutes and voila, you have a couch."  
  
" That's really cool Grandpa." Rory commented, watching the couch slowly inflate.  
  
" And it has a matching set of armchairs, slipcovers and folding table set" Emily continued, opening the valves on two chairs and laying the slipcovers in Lorelai's arms.  
  
" Emily, would you give me a hand, I believe I left the all weather carpet in the backseat." Lorelai watched them go back to the car, then looked over at Rory.  
  
" They're inflating and unfolding a sitting room on the sidelines."  
  
" They want to be comfortable."  
  
" My mother is bringing back a vase of orchids."  
  
" And homey."  
  
" And they wonder why I'm screwed up. They're expanding a room at a softball game."  
  
" I found the service set." Emily announced, returning.  
  
" Did you hear that Rory. They found the service set. At the softball game. Silver, and softball."  
  
" Relax mom."  
  
" If they break out crystal beer mugs I swear...."  
  
***********************************  
  
Most of the team was gathered around the bench just before their first game, which was starting at 9:30.  
  
" We've got three games, against each of the other teams and then two best teams go into the finals." Luke explained. " We're playing Doose's first."  
  
" Are those the ringers." Kirk asked warily, looking over at the opposite bench.  
  
" Those cannot be women. Those are too...big to be women." Rory exclaimed.  
  
" Maybe they're former East German Olympian women. You know, the ones who took so many steriods they became momans." Luke stared at Lorelai, confused and a little afraid.  
  
" Momans?"  
  
" Half man-half womans."  
  
" Why did I bother to ask."  
  
" Or maybe Taylor got the Red Shoes team to dress in drag." Lorelai schemed. Luke rolled his eyes in exasperation.  
  
" Red Soxs."  
  
" Whatever," Lorelai waved it off. " What do you think their names are?"  
  
" Bertha." Rory suggested  
  
" Gert." Lorelai returned  
  
" Frankie."  
  
" Frank."  
  
" Frank the tank."  
  
" Hello ladies, Luke." Taylor appeared behind them, interrupting their spiel.  
  
" Gah! Taylor.... Hey. That's quite a team you got there." Lorelai nodded, recovering from the shock of having Taylor's face pop up next to her.  
  
" Yes, well, I invited some family down from New York for Thanksgiving and they decided to play."  
  
" That's your family?" Luke raised an eyebrow and tried not to laugh, and Lorelai hit him in the ribs, even though she was trying not to herself.  
  
" Oh, not all of them of course. Just the four on the left. Cousins."  
  
" Well I'm sure it will be very pleasant to meet them." Lorelai tried to smile, but looked back at Rory, who was still trying not to laugh at Taylor.  
  
" Well, I'll just tell you their names now, because I don't think that they'll be talking to you much later. They're a little competitive, and they get a bit...focused on winning."  
  
" Focused like 'Hey I'd really like to win this' or focused like a starving pit bull on raw meat."  
  
" The second one I'd suppose." Taylor remarked calmly  
  
" Good to know." Rory frowned, and shifted slightly so that she was hiding behind Lorelai.  
  
"Suzanne, Karen, Francine and Philip." Taylor announced. " Well, I really have to be going. I'll see you folks on the field." They waved goodbye, and took another glance at where he had joined his cousins. Luke, Rory, Lorelai and Marty looked at each other.  
  
" Alright," Lorelai spoke up. " Who wants first crack? Cause I'll go...No one?....Alright, I gave the chance, but here it goes...............alright, Francine?" Lorelai looked around at them.  
  
" Frankie." Rory returned.  
  
" Frank."  
  
" Frank the Tank."  
  
" We were right."  
  
" I'm afraid." Rory shivered and Lorelai clutched her arm in fake terror.  
  
" Who's next?" Lorelai looked around, expecting Rory, or maybe even Marty. Luke surprised them.  
  
" Look, I don't agree with this, but I gotta know. Was he going from right to left?"  
  
" Left to right." All four of them glanced over and shuddered.  
  
" Poor Suzanne."  
  
" Poor Suzanne? What about poor Philip?"  
  
" Touche."  
  
"We should go warm up."  
  
" Lukey, what positions are we playing?" Lorelai hugged his arm and tugged on it. Luke scowled.  
  
" Don't call me that." He pulled his arm away and moved beside her. He put one hand in the small of her back and pointed out towards the field with the other. "See out there?"  
  
" That's second base?"  
  
"......Third....."  
  
" Right."  
  
" Okay, so go over there, but once you get there, turn north and walk 100 paces. You'll be in deep, deep left field."  
  
" I'll be in the parking lot."  
  
" Exactly. Then get in your car and drive home because you have no idea how to play this game." Lorelai's mouth dropped open in indignation and she smacked him in the chest. Luke flinched a little, but just smirked at her.  
  
" Maybe I would have learned a bit more if our lesson had gone a bit longer." Lorelai teased. " Or maybe a lot more." She continued softly, glancing down at where Luke's hand was still resting on her back. She could see his face flush a little and could feel his thumb moving softly and subtly back and forth. She wasn't even sure he knew he was doing it. But, glancing up and seeing his eyes, she did know that they were both wondering about what she had almost said and how disappointed Luke had sounded when-  
  
" Taylor needs the team captain so they can flip for who's up first." Nicole interrupted Lorelai's thoughts, causing her to jump. Luke's hand dropped and Lorelai felt her back fall uncomfortably cold.  
  
" Oh, alright then, yeah. Hey, why don't you come with me." Even he could feel the tension that was rising between the two women on either side. Nicole glanced over at Lorelia, who was whispering to Rory. She sniffed, and reached down, grabbing Luke's hand. Luke saw Lorelai look over, and it almost looked like she was hurt or something. He suddenly felt annoyed at Nicole over something, and decided it would be best if he kept her away from Lorelai for a while. "Heads or tails?" Luke asked, leading Nicole quickly away towards the pitcher's mound, hoping she wouldn't notice the flush that wouldn't disappear even after he had taken his hand off.  
  
" Tails. And a kiss for good luck." Nicole pulled into a stop and kissed him. Luke kissed her back, but for some reason, he didn't really feel like it very much. He felt like he didn't have the right to be kissing someone else when his hand was still tingling from Lorelai's back.  
  
*****************************  
  
" I swear she's got radar or something." Lorelai looked incredulously at Rory.  
  
" I think you got caught trying to steal second, or was that third?" Lorelai glared at her.  
  
" Honestly though. Have you not noticed her uncannily bad timing. There has to be a regulation on use of supernatural powers or something."  
  
" I thought that there was no competition."  
  
" There is not competition."  
  
" Then you're just upset about the moment again."  
  
" What did I tell you about the moments."  
  
" Blending of souls."  
  
" Give me a hand here Marty." Lorelai pleaded.  
  
" Don't look at me. I'm confused."  
  
" Well, then join the club. I'm not just the president, I'm a member too."  
  
" Old reference." Rory frowned  
  
" Can nothing go right today?" Lorelai remarked sighing. She glanced up at Luke and saw Nicole pulling him into a kiss. " OH come on! Rory!"  
  
" What?" Lorelai grabbed her arm and pointed across the field.  
  
" Come on! She's frenching him on the field!"  
  
" Eww! I'm all for public displays of affection, but he serves my food."  
  
" I know! And that has got to be against the rules."  
  
" Of softball?"  
  
" If I can't use kissing then she shouldn't be able to either." Lorelai cried indignantly.  
  
" I thought there was no competition." Rory teased.  
  
" Ach, you and your youthful memory."  
  
" I guess it's just her homecourt advantage."  
  
" Court?"  
  
" Field?"  
  
" Field."  
  
" Ugh." The two of them sighed.  
  
***********************************  
  
Emily sat down on the inflated, slipcovered couch. Richard had moved one of the armchairs underneath a tree and was reading the paper, looking up every few minutes to watch the progression, or rather digression of Luke's against Doose's Market. Emily was sipping some of Luke's coffee in a china cup, and privately thought that it was nearly as good as Lorelai raved it to be. She was startled when a voice came up behind her.  
  
" You're Emily right? Lorelai's mother?" Mrs.Patty asked curiously. Emily looked up sternly, then smiled politely.  
  
" Miss...Patty I believe? We met at Rory's party, and Mrs. St. James's wedding if I remember."  
  
" Of course honey. Now, is anyone sitting here, or would you mind if I joined you. Only those bleachers weren't meant for a lady."  
  
" Of course not. Please." Emily gestured at the other half of the couch and the armchair. Miss Patty smiled gratefully, then waved over her shoulder and several others who were waiting by the bleachers came to join her. Soon she, Emily, Babette, Sookie and Jackson were relaxing comfortably. Emily found herself becoming interested in the game, as well as talking politely with Sookie about Davey, who they had of course brought along. However, Babette and Miss Patty were otherwise engaged, watching what was happening on the bench. Nicole was up to bat, hitting a single and getting on base. Meanwhile Luke and Lorelai were fooling around, nudging each other, whispering and laughing, and occasionally Lorelai would smack him playfully on his shoulder.  
  
" Those two. It makes you reminisce about being young and in love." Miss Patty sighed.  
  
" It's such a shame that they won't do anything about it."  
  
" Afraid I'd say. They've been friends too long. Nothing ruins a good relationship like a good friendship."  
  
" I don't know about that. They seem to have been getting a bit more frisky lately. A lot with the touchy feely. I saw them practicing over here a couple days ago and they were looking pretty comfortable, his arms all around her. Until that Nicole showed up. Ruined a perfect moment. I bet if it weren't for her that they're about ready to do something about it."  
  
" Oh really? You think that she'll wait until Nicole's out of the picture? I wouldn't wait this long for that. I'd be jumping right onto that, so to speak. Not to mention Lorelai's going out with that Jason Stiles."  
  
" Yes, but it's not serious. I'd bet you that as soon as Nicole's out of the picture, Lorelai makes her move. And if I were a betting woman, which I am, I'd say that wasn't too long from now. That Nicole hasn't seemed too happy with all the attention Luke been giving Lorelai's way, and Luke hasn't seemed mind too much. Yes, very soon I'd say."  
  
" Really, how much are you willing to support that with."  
  
" I have fifty dollars that say one of them makes a move before the end of the tournament at this rate." Miss Patty looked over at the bench, where Lorelai had grabbed Luke's hand and was tracing some of the lines on it, chattering away explaining something about them. Emily had overheard their comments, looking at Luke and Lorelai at the same time. She turned to them suddenly and interrupted.  
  
" Excuse me, are you talking about Lorelai and that Luke?"  
  
" But of course honey, you must know all about them. The perfect little love birds. He absolutely adores her, and Rory of course, and she appears to have finally openly fallen for him quite well lately. Then again, who wouldn't." Babette nodded in agreement.  
  
" What about this Nicole person?"  
  
" I wouldn't worry about her much longer. As soon as Lorelai shows that man any serious interest, he'll drop her like a load of bricks." Babette exclaimed.  
  
" Really, and you think that it's alright to bet on matters of your friends' hearts." Emily demanded haughtily, feeling resentful at being shut out of another part of Lorelai's life. But then again, they way that the other two had been talking, maybe there really wasn't anything tangible between the two yet. And she was apparently the only one who Lorelai had said anything about having feelings for Luke to, even though it had nearly been under an interrogation lamp.  
  
" Well, " Miss Patty, looked a little uncomfortable. " I suppose...." Emily looked over at the bench. Luke had bent down to whisper something in Lorelai's ear and she stopped tracing the lines of his palm. He leaned back up and she grinned at him, leaning against him, then cast her eyes down. She saw Lorelai glance furtively up at him and she looked at Luke. Emily saw him smiling down at Lorelai softly as he leaned back against her. Lorelai said something back to him and they both laughed. She pursed her mouth.  
  
" Is this wager exclusive?"  
  
" Emily!" Sookie cried indignantly. Miss Patty and Babette grinned at each other.  
  
" Of course not honey. What would you like to wager. 2 to 6 odds."  
  
" $200 on Lorelai by the end of dinner tonight." She said in the most dignified manner possible.  
  
" Fine. $40 for me." All three of them and Jackson turned around and stared at Sookie.  
  
" Oh, so her mother can bet on her love life but her best friend can't." Sookie rolled her eyes and took two twenties out of her wallet. " I need everything I can get for the inn, so I sure hope she does it."  
  
" So do I." Emily said quietly, watching the Luke tighten Lorelai's helmet and laugh before she went up to strike out.  
  
*************************  
  
" Hey Mom?" Rory looked at her watch. They had just finished their second game, against Al's and it was 12:30.  
  
" Yeah?" Lorelai looked up from her glove, which had been decorated, much to Luke's dismay, with pink and gold glitter glue.  
  
" Where's Jason?"  
  
" Um.....he had an emergency business meeting."  
  
" He works for Grandpa."  
  
" Oh, uh..... right."  
  
" Did you call him and tell him not to come?"  
  
" Would it make me a horrible person if I did?"  
  
" That would have to depend on why."  
  
" I'll plead the fifth."  
  
" I have an inkling."  
  
" The bathrooms are over thataway, but they're public, so I'd try for those bushes if I were you......" Rory looked at her skeptically. "......... I just said that maybe he should go talk things over with his father."  
  
" That was nice of you."  
  
" And then just join us for the dinner after."  
  
" When Nicole will be around Luke all the time. You're sneaky you know that?"  
  
" Where do you think you got it from? I am the master of sneakiness." Lorelai proclaimed, but she looked a bit sheepish afterwards.  
  
************************  
  
Nicole walked up to Luke. Taylor, who had just finished the last game before the final between Doose's and Gypsy's, had just stopped talking to him, much to the relief of Luke.  
  
" Luke, I have to make a call to one of the partners, but my cell phone just died out. I forgot to charge it."  
  
" You can use the phone at the dinner." Luke reached into his pocket and reached around for a minute before remembering.  
  
" Lor!" Lorelai turned around on the bleachers and smiled. " Keys."  
  
" Oh, right, um, one sec, I just gotta...one more sec....." She was searching through her purse for the keys. Nicole sighed both impatiently and highly audibly, and Luke gave her an annoyed look. "I've almost....I just have to....got em!" She tossed the keys over towards Luke, but they landed short and far to the left. Luke just laughed to himself and went over to pick up the keys. Lorelai glanced back and saw him bend down to pick them up, biting her lip, then looked at Nicole, who was glaring at her. She turned around suddenly and stared the baseball diamond.  
  
" You okay Mom?" Rory said after a few moments, noticing Lorelai was strangely quiet.  
  
" She caught me."  
  
" What?"  
  
" Nicole caught me. Looking at Luke when he went to get the keys."  
  
" What kind of look was it?" Rory tried to see inconspicuously over Lorelai's shoulder.  
  
"I think I just felt a thousand tiny little arrows of hate stab me in the back of the head. Can you see them?"  
  
" Nope, too much hair. Hey mom?"  
  
" Yeah?"  
  
" Maybe you should tone down the competition."  
  
" But-"  
  
" I know, I know, there is no competition. But for health and safety purposes-"  
  
" No Rory. That's not the problem."  
  
" Then what's wrong..." Lorelai looked around and leaned in, whispering.  
  
" That wasn't part of the competition."  
  
" Hunh?"  
  
" It was an unregulated check-out."  
  
" What?"  
  
" This wasn't flirtoff material . This was an unregulated, illegal, non authorized, sneaky sneaky checkout. I copped a glance. I shoplifted a look at Luke. It wasn't part of the competition, I don't know what came over me. I just..."  
  
" Oh my- You checked out Luke for real?"  
  
" And she caught me."  
  
" Not good."  
  
" Should I flee the country?"  
  
" Maybe just the state."  
  
" She's a lawyer, she has connections to the legal system and the police and the FBI."  
  
" I'd catch the next flight to Manila."  
  
" Where did this all go suddenly very wrong and confusing?"  
  
" I'd guess where the exhibition game stopped and the real competition began."  
  
" Stop with the sports analogies."  
  
" When you stopped flirting for vengence and started for serious."  
  
"The shoplifting?"  
  
" The five fingers of that discount are forming into a vengeful fist as we speak."  
  
" A vengeful fist named Nicole." Lorelai narrowed her eyes.  
  
" Exactly."  
  
" This cannot be happening. I did not check out Luke. I do not check out Luke."  
  
" I guess you do now."  
  
" This is very bad."  
  
" Or maybe very good." Rory pointed out.  
  
" Your not helping."  
  
" Or maybe I am."  
  
" Are you looking to explore whole new meanings of the word painful?"  
  
" Message received. Prodding is done."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
" I'd choose you over Nicole any day, if I was Luke." She added. Lorelai glared at Rory and gave her arm a pinch.  
  
" HEY! OW! Okay, I get it, officially done prodding....but I'm changing my vote to Nicole."  
  
" My own blood, a traitor." Lorelai cried dramatically.  
  
" She never pinched me."  
  
" You never prodded her, thus giving her a justified reason to pinch. Anyways you have to choose me. Your obligated."  
  
" By what?"  
  
" By fourteen hours of labour."  
  
" How long are you going to hold that against me. It's not like I decided to have a giant head. It's your genetics, it's your fault."  
  
" Why don't we blame Chris?"  
  
" Cause you're the one with the big head and therefore the big head genes."  
  
" So it's my fault?"  
  
" Yes."  
  
" Can I blame my big head on my parents?"  
  
" No, that's not nice."  
  
" You blamed fourteen hours of excruciating pain on me." Lorelai complained.  
  
" You blamed me first.  
  
" Only because you blamed me."  
  
" Only because you blamed me."  
  
" Only cause you blamed me."  
  
" And around and around and around and around."  
  
" I feel like a corn dog."  
  
" You don't look like a corn dog."  
  
" Good one."  
  
" I try."  
  
" Don't." They both turned around to where Luke was talking to the team.  
  
*******************************  
  
" I'll tell the rest of the team. You go make your call." Luke passed her the diner keys.  
  
" I'll be right back." Nicole kissed him, looking back at Lorelai, who was whispering with Rory, then hurried off to her car. Luke sighed. She had been kissing him a lot today, but it didn't seem like she was doing it cause she wanted to. It was almost like she felt she had to or something. Luke wandered over to the bleachers.  
  
" I just talked to Taylor. We're in the finals."  
  
" What? We lost every game." Dave exclaimed.  
  
" Al's had to pull out."  
  
" What's wrong." Marty asked, while uncomfortably trying to console Kirk, who was still distraught over the tournament results.  
  
" Turns out they had a team meeting over dinner last night."  
  
" At Al's."  
  
" Yeah."  
  
" So food poisoning?"  
  
" Oh yeah. It's disgusting. No one use the bathroom. Or those bushes over there." Lorelai cursed then looked back at Rory.  
  
"They stole our back up."  
  
" What about Gypsy's?" Caesar interrupted.  
  
" The fire engine broke down and she had to go fix it right away, just in case."  
  
" I hope that the ambulance is okay." Rory commented, looking at her mother.  
  
" Why does that matter?" Luke asked, knowing he didn't really want to know the answer.  
  
" Well, she's going to have to get to the hospital after she gets crushed somehow, cause I don't think those lifts she's got are going to support a fire engine very long." Lorelai explained.  
  
" Fire engines don't need to go on the li-" Luke looked at Lorelai and saw that she was teasing. He shook his head. " Right. So we've got fifteen minutes before the game starts."  
  
" Time for tea?" Lorelai asked with a fake British accent.  
  
" Indubitably old chap." Rory replied, linking arms with her.  
  
" Away, to the expandable chesterfield." Lorelai turned around to the rest of the team.  
  
" Coming? We brought enough food for twenty."  
  
" So that's enough for you two. What'd you bring for everyone else." Luke scoffed. Lorelai turned around and gave him a teasing smile.  
  
" HA! Good one! Did you hear that Ror, cause we eat a lot! Classic Luke, that was a classic."  
  
" Shut up." Luke frowned and nudged her with his elbow, catching up to Lorelai and Rory. Lorelai did a quick scan, and not seeing Nicole around, linked arms with Luke too. He started to complain, but ended up just rolling his eyes and following them over to the jet puffed living room the Gilmore's had set up, and were now entertaining most of the town in. He tightened his arm very slightly. Both of them smiled quietly, glancing over at each other. Lorelai reached her fingers back and rubbed his wrist lightly. Without even thinking about it Luke's arm relaxed, sliding his hand down to meet hers. Lorelai barely noticed as her fingers slipped into his, weaving naturally together. For some reason it didn't seem a strange enough feeling to even notice, so natural they seem less noticable apart than they did together. Suddenly Rory coughed loudly and Lorelai glanced at her, startled. Rory raised her eyebrows. Lorelai at her quizzically, then looked back at Luke, then down at their hands and her eyes opened wide . She glanced back up at Luke, who looked at her strangely, then down at their hands as well . They both pulled away, putting them awkwardly at their sides.  
  
" Sorry about that..." Luke muttered, looking at the ground.  
  
" No, no that's...okay." Lorelai stuttered.  
  
" It was just a-"  
  
" Mistake?" Lorelai said, not really wanting Luke to agree. Luke shook his head.  
  
" Accident."  
  
" An accident."  
  
" Exactly." Luke said. Lorelai nodded in agreement, then smiled up at him nervously.  
  
" I should.... go get the food now. Come on Ror." Lorelai pulled Rory away towards the car, glancing back at Luke and grinning. Luke smiled back, a little confused, rubbing his fingers together. This had definitely past vibe stage. But Nicole. Nicole. What about Nicole. They were still going out because they loved spending time together. Then why did he want that phone call to last forever. Maybe this wasn't going to work out with Nicole. Maybe Lorelai was....He looked across the parking lot to where Rory was loading her up with a huge stack of boxes and silver catering trays, not noticing Emily watching him intently from the couch. He looked down and ran his fingers across his palm again. Maybe Lorelai was........Maybe Lorelai would.......Maybe Lorelai? 


	6. Caught in the act Red handed Out in the ...

Almost the entire town had abandoned the bleachers and crowded around the Gilmore inflate-a-room, which had become headquarters for Fast Patty's Bookie Service.  
  
"I want $20 on Nicole being gone, but Luke and Lor still apart. And I hope I'm right. Papa needs a new pack of diapers." Jackson had finally succumbed and passed a twenty over to Babette, who was holding all the cash.  
  
"Hey Patty, " Andrew leaned over the couch. " What's the odds on the two of them before the end of the final game?"  
  
"Hey babe!" Babette knocked Miss Patty in the arm, just as she was about to open her mouth. " They're coming over. Time to close up shop for a while." Babette grabbed all the cash and hid it underneath the cushion, while Miss Patty did the same with the notebook. They all hurriedly tried to look casual, trying not to look like they were watching the team come over. Miss Patty gasped as Lorelai glanced around and linked arms with Luke, running her fingers along his wrist. Emily tried to look like she was absorbed by the magazine that she had in her lap, but kept casting sideways glances at the two of them. She hadn't said anything since making her wager, but hadn't protested against the transformation of her living room. She supposed that they were all just doing this because they cared. Well, most of them. Apparently this had been a long time coming if they were so eager and willing to bet that today was the day. As they approached, everyone tried to talk about something else, but it was evident what everyone's mind was really on. A burst of chatter broke out as they saw Luke's hand slip into Lorelai's.  
  
"It's happening!" Sookie whispered excitedly, pulling on Jackson's arm. They all saw the two of them look down and at each other, then let go shyly. They watched as they talked nervously, before Lorelai pulled Rory away to the car, grinning back at him. Luke watched her go, and Emily observed Luke carefully. He looked, well, happy was really the only way that you could describe it. Emily didn't know that much about Luke, not directly. She heard about him from Lorelai, how he was always around, how much he frustrated her. But looking at the two of them, they looked very comfortable together. Nothing was awkward when they were beside each other. And this Luke apparently cared a great deal about Lorelai, and Rory. Despite what Lorelai might think, that was all Emily really wanted for them. She wanted to talk to Luke. She wanted to know what his intentions were, especially with regards to this Nicole woman. Luke wandered over to where he town was crowded, smiling to himself. When he got to the couch he looked up. Everyone was smiling at him.  
  
"What?" He frowned and looked around paranoidly.  
  
"Nothing Luke honey. Nothing at all. Can't a person be happy?"  
  
"You're all happy." Luke looked around at all the smiles and started to get a little afraid.  
  
"So are you." Patty intoned, making it seem like this was significant.  
  
"What's going on over here?"  
  
"Oh, nothing..."  
  
"We were all just discussing...." Babette looked around for something that they could all have been talking about.  
  
"Where this furniture came from?" Sookie suggested.  
  
"Exactly. It's such a nice piece. Me and Morey were looking for a new couch so-"  
  
"So everyone came over to help you decide?" He questioned.  
  
"Two opinions is always better than one?" Luke's eyes narrowed.  
  
"Why do you want this in your house. Why not just buy a regular couch." Miss Patty looked at him calculatingly and smiled. This would be a good time to gauge a reaction.  
  
"Well it's just such a pretty shade of blue. It almost matches Lorelai's eyes, don't you think . Don't you think Luke?"  
  
"Think what?" He shrugged.  
  
"The colour, just like Lorelai's eyes. It's pretty isn't it?"  
  
"Sure." Luke furrowed his brows in confusion.  
  
"So you think she's pretty?" Miss Patty probed further.  
  
"The couch is a she? Did you name the couch already?" Confused, Luke turned to Lorelai who had returned with Rory from the Jeep, laden with food.  
  
"Not yet, but thanks for the reminder. Hey Rory, what's a good name for an inflatable couch."  
  
"Blimpo?"  
  
"Um, no. How about Magdaline?"  
  
"No, too biblical. How about Suzette?" Lorelai wrinkled her nose.  
  
"Oh, Angelina?" She suggested.  
  
"Too Tomb Raider. How about....."  
  
"How about you two stop naming the furniture so we can actually eat before the next game." Luke grumbled. Lorelai frowned and nudged at him.  
  
"No fun. Hey Mom, can we use the sofa table as a buffet?"  
  
"Did you bring coasters?"  
  
"No, did you bring the liquor cabinet?"  
  
"You're not making any sense."  
  
"Hot food burning off important limbs Mom." Lorelai said impatiently, shifting the trays on her arm, even though none of the food was actually hot.  
  
"Fine. Put this over top to protect it." Emily lifted up the top of the coffee table and pulled out a tablecloth. Lorelai gave Rory an incredulous look as she took the white tablecloth and spread it over the table, laying the now open boxes and catering trays on top. Rory arranged paper plates and utensils at one end.  
  
"Everyone help themselves. Compliments to Sookie who provided this wonderful meal."  
  
Everyone murmured thanks and started to line up. Lorelai grabbed Luke's arm and pulled him up to the front of the line with her and Rory.  
  
"Oh, she made those little tiny hot dog things with the pastry and the dry mustard. And the coleslaw with those really good organic carrot things of Jackson's. Nice spread hun." Sookie smiled from behind them as Lorelai loaded up her plate.  
  
"Vegetables?" Luke looked at the pile of coleslaw and smiled smugly.  
  
"Smothered to death in a pool of dressing however." Lorelai corrected him. He shook his head at her as the plate was bending at the edges with the weight of food. " Let's grab a seat....." Lorelai looked around the pseudo-living room, but all the seats and then some were taken. Even the bleachers were full now that the other teams were done playing. They looked around and Lorelai saw a big tree with some comfy looking roots. " Why don't we just go over there?"  
  
"Sure," Luke just shrugged.  
  
"Ror, coming?"  
  
"What?" Rory turned and looked at Luke and Lorelai, then grinned. " Actually, why don't you two just go ahead. I wanted to talk to Grandma about something."  
  
"You talked to her last night." Lorelai looked at Rory suspiciously.  
  
"We just have to finish a conversation." Rory was trying to look innocent, but Lorelai already knew what she was trying.  
  
"I heard all your conversations. They were all complete."  
  
"It was while you were in the bathroom."  
  
"I never went to the bathroom."  
  
"Um...yes you did. You know, right after the...uh.....you know...and right before the...uh...thing." Rory said unconvincingly.  
  
"No, I specifically remember that I didn't, because I almost exploded on the way home."  
  
"I'll be over in a minute." Rory changed the subject.  
  
"I'll be timing."  
  
"I'm stealing your watch."  
  
"I'm watching you."  
  
"Go eat."  
  
"Fine." Lorelai sighed and followed Luke over to the tree. Rory went over and sat down on the couch next to Emily. They looked at each other, then looked out at Lorelai, who was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. One of the sausage rolls fell of her plate, and she started to pout, but Luke took two off of his plate and put them on hers. She smiled again and nudged him, before they sat down underneath the tree. Rory and Emily looked back at each other and smiled.  
  
Lorelai flopped down on the ground, lying on her stomach with her head towards the tree and her food on the ground. Luke leaned back against the tree trunk, bending his legs and draping his arms over his knees. He twisted the plastic fork around in his fingers, but his food was sitting on the ground in between his legs, untouched.  
  
"They're all cracked." He grunted, glancing up  
  
"What?" Lorelai looked at him confused. Luke nodded his head at the crowd around the couch that had gone back to a frantic whisper. " Oh." She laughed. " What is it now."  
  
"I don't know, they were telling me something that made no sense. Something about comparing you to a couch."  
  
"Well that's unflattering."  
  
"Nevermind. Like I said, there all cracked."  
  
"They're not cracked Mr. Cynical." Lorelai prodded him reprovingly in the leg with her fork. " They're delightfully quirky, wonderfully eccentric, terribly unique."  
  
"The terrible parts right."  
  
"All right Luke. What's wrong. You were all Happy Mr. Baseball Man a minute ago, now you're back to Cynical Grumpy Diner Guy." Lorelai pushed his arm. Luke glared back at the mob, watching Miss Patty pull the board back out from under the cushion and started pointing things out.  
  
"They're talking about us."  
  
"What about us?" Lorelai glanced back at the board curiously.  
  
"I don't know." Luke sighed  
  
"That's the scary part."  
  
"That I do know."  
  
"What about us could they be talking about?"  
  
"Who knows?" Luke shook his head and stabbed at a piece of broccoli on his plate. He glanced over at the crowd again. "You know, is it to much to ask to have privacy in this town?"  
  
"Excuse me, but you've lived here how long and you expect to have privacy?" Lorelai laughed, taking another bite of her coleslaw.  
  
"Just because I can't have it doesn't mean I don't want it." Luke mumbled, squinting away at the cars in the parking lot, then looking back at his hands, where he was running his thumb across the lines of his hand. Lorelai cocked her head to look at him. He almost looked sad, or disappointed or something. She hated when he looked like that.  
  
"Hey, you never know, if you outlive Babette, and Miss Patty, and Taylor you might just have a chance at it during your final hours." Luke looked at her as she smiled at him and rolled over onto her back, chewing on a sausage roll.  
  
"That's a very comforting thought. Thank you." He said sarcastically, but smiling a little. Lorelai grinning up at him, then bit her lip and looked at him seriously. Luke frowned at her sudden change.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm just trying to figure out what you're trying to keep private from everyone...." She looked at him calculatingly. " Not gay are you?"  
  
"Lorelai."  
  
"Alright....pregnant?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
"The father better make an honest man out of you."  
  
"We were thinking of a May wedding."  
  
"Pretty time of year. SO........not gay, not pregnant, do you have an evil twin?......No, okay...um....secretly in love?" Lorelai tried to say casually.  
  
"Yeah, of course." Luke rolled his eyes, but glanced back at Lorelai, hoping she didn't notice, but he caught her eye and started to flush involuntarily. Lorelai started to feel the looming shadow of a huge awkward silence lean over her, so she just shot something out.  
  
"Another unexpected marriage?"  
  
"Uh, I've had enough of those to last a long time, let me tell you that." Luke let his head fall back against the tree trunk.  
  
"Talking about it, where is the old ball and chain?"  
  
"She had to make a phone call."  
  
"How is it going between you two, I mean the whole dating while married idea." Luke tilted his head forwards a bit to look at her.  
  
"You really want to know?"  
  
"Of course. Hey, I always come running to you whenever I have problems. It's about time I returned the favour. Lay it on me big boy." Luke gave her a strange look. Lorelai started giggling at her self and glanced guiltily at Luke. He rolled his eyes.  
  
"Go ahead."  
  
"No I'll be alright."  
  
"I know you want to say it. Get it out of your system."  
  
"No I'm-"  
  
"Just say it."  
  
"Dirty."  
  
"Your actually insane, you do know that?" Luke shook his head.  
  
"Come on Luke." Lorelai pulled herself up and kneeled in between his feet, leaning her arms on his knees. " What's going on with you."  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"You're going to have to give me more than that to run on."  
  
"No, nothing. Nothings going on."  
  
"What about wonderful wife Nicole?"  
  
"It's not going so well."  
  
"Oh, that's not good." Luke just shrugged.  
  
"I think this whole idea was a mistake in the first place. I think I should just get the divorce finalized and move on."  
  
"So you're going to break up with her?"  
  
"Yeah....I guess I'm going to have to. I don't think she's going to be all that thrilled."  
  
"Really? Cause I'm usually just jumping for joy when things like that happen.  
  
"You know what I mean. I don't think she's all that happy with me to start with."  
  
"What did you do?"  
  
"I don't know. I probably wasn't paying enough attention to her or something like that."  
  
"Oh....Is this my fault Luke? I didn't mean to get in the way, I mean, I can understand how a lot of women have trouble with their boyfriend's, or husband's, girl friends."  
  
"No, I don't think us being friends was the problem." Luke looked up at Lorelai. She was leaning against his knees, sitting on her feet and watching him carefully. " It just wasn't right."  
  
"Uncomfortable?"  
  
"No, I think that was the problem. We confused comfortable and happy."  
  
"You're not happy?"  
  
"Not with her."  
  
"So you want uncomfortable but happy?"  
  
"I'd prefer both."  
  
"Your too picky, you know. Between no dating and wanting comfortable and happy, your just going to have to hope that someone perfect just happens to wander into your diner everyday until that gut thing kicks in."  
  
"Yeah, and what are the chances of that."  
  
"Who knows." Lorelai grinned, leaning over and stabbing a piece of chicken off Luke's plate.  
  
"Don't do that." Luke frowned at her.  
  
"I finished all mine."  
  
"So?"  
  
"And I'm still hungry."  
  
"And?"  
  
"And your not eating yours."  
  
"I was planning to."  
  
"Fine." She turned around and leaned against his knees, crossing her arms.  
  
"Lorelai....don't do that." Luke sighed at her sulking.  
  
"I'm not doing anything."  
  
"What's wrong this time." Lorelai leaned her head backwards so that she was looking at him upside down.  
  
"I'm still hungry." She frowned.  
  
"I'm guessing that means you want some of my food."  
  
"Wow, you must me pyschic." Lorelai retorted sarcastically.  
  
"Yeah Lorelai wanting me to give her food, who saw that one coming."  
  
"I get grumpy when I'm hungry."  
  
"Yeah, I know. Fine." Luke took a piece of broccoli and dropped it into her open mouth. Lorelai took a bite then sat up quickly and spat it out. She leaned back again and glared at him.  
  
"Real food this time." Luke rolled his eyes and gave her one of the turkey meatballs from his plate. She chewed happily for a minute, then turned back to him.  
  
"I'm all sore and stiff." Lorelai rolled her neck and winced. " Is movement supposed to be this painful?"  
  
"Not if you do it regularily."  
  
"Does it get less painful?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"But it still hurts?"  
  
"Sometimes, but that usually means it's working."  
  
"I don't like this system."  
  
"Don't worry. It'll hurt like hell in bed tonight-don't say it-" Luke interrupted as he saw her face light up and her mouth open. She frowned at him and pouted. " But tomorrow you can go back to your regular heart attack-welcoming ways."  
  
"Hooray for cholesterol." Lorelai tried to raise her arms up but winced. "Okay, ow. Hey Luke can you give me some help? Give me a shoulder rub. Pleeeeeease." Lorelai looked at him and pouted. " I won't be able to play in the big game otherwise, and I'll have to sit on the bench and cry because I'll be the poor crippled arm girl that no one likes because she can't play. And then-"  
  
"If I do it will you stop?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
"You sure?"  
  
"I promise." Luke pulled his legs up a little closer to his chest and Lorelai scooted  
  
happily backwards, leaning in on his knees. Luke put his hands carefully on her shoulders, just on the outside part. He rubbed his thumbs gently across her shoulders and the top of her arms.  
  
"OH.....MY....GO- You've been holding out on me Danes."  
  
"You promised." Luke frowned at her and look around, hoping no one was noticing the noise she was making. Thankfully, no one did, except the 40 or so people around the couch, who burst into a new frenzy of activity.  
  
"But it's just so gooood." Lorelai moaned.  
  
"Stop it. Your embarrasing me." Luke grumbled  
  
"That's just a bonus. My holy heavenly-Where did you learn to do this?"  
  
"If you don't stop talking I'm going to stop."  
  
"NO! No! I'll be good, I promise. Don't stop." Luke shook his head and started rubbing her neck.  
  
"Uhhhhhhh." Lorelai leaned forwards a little and groaned happily.  
  
"Stop that!"  
  
"I wasn't talking!"  
  
"You were noisy."  
  
"I can't help it."  
  
"That's not a good signal." Lorelai turned around and looked at him, with a bit of a grin on her face.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Luke started to look flustered.  
  
"Nothing, I mean, I just, I meant that you know, if you were...."  
  
"If I were what?" She narrowed her eyes playfully at him and saw him start to flush.  
  
"There's no way that we could just pretend that I never said that and forget this whole thing?"  
  
"Not a chance."  
  
"I didn't mean anything bad by it."  
  
"Didn't mean anything bad? Or didn't mean anything BAD by it?" Lorelai was teasing him with a playfully sultry voice.  
  
"Stop it."  
  
"Dirty thoughts Luke."  
  
"Leave me alone."  
  
"Dirty dirty Luke."  
  
" Did you get locked in a room and deprived of all examples of decency as a child or somthing?"  
  
" Dirty Luke with dirty Luke thoughts  
  
"I'm going back." Luke started to move, but Lorelai grabbed his arm.  
  
"No! Come on, don't go. I'm sorry. I know you're all shy, it's just fun to tease you. Don't go away now." Lorelai smiled at him apologetically.  
  
"Fine." Luke sighed and leaned back against the tree. Lorelai leaned against him and shivered.  
  
"Cold?"  
  
"Yeah, just a bit."  
  
"That can happen in November."  
  
"So I've heard."  
  
"You want to borrow my shirt? I've got another one underneath."  
  
"No, then you'll be cold. Just scooch your legs down."  
  
"What?" Luke looked at her as she started to scoot around on the ground.  
  
"I'm going to lean against you, that way we're both warm."  
  
"Oh. Okay." Luke was hesitant, but he straightened out his legs and Lorelai scooted back a little, leaning against him and shifting around on his stomach to get comfortable.  
  
"You done yet?" He asked impatiently, holding his breath, as Lorelai crossed her feet and laid her head on his shoulder.  
  
"Just about." She leaned her head back and smiled at him. She closed her eyes for a minute.  
  
"Warming up?"  
  
"Umhum." Lorelai nodded her head.  
  
"Comfortable?"  
  
"Of course." She said quietly, looking down. Luke smiled. Very catiously, he lifted his hands and laid them softly across Lorelai's waist, wrapping his hands together. Lorelai made a little satisfied noise, and shifted backwards a little more. She slowly put her hands overtop of his and played with his fingers. After a few moments, Lorelai turned and looked up at Luke. She caught him staring at her, and she smiled at his shyness as he glanced away nervously. When he looked back, Lorelai was still looking at him, biting her lip. Luke looked down, running a finger along the hemline of her shirt, and Lorelai shifted ever so slightly so that she could face him more. Lorelai leaned her head against his neck. She could feel his breathing speed up a little and his pulse quicken. Luke, glanced sideways, knowingthat the town folk must just about be having a heart attack at this, but he didn't care too much right now.  
  
"Luke?"  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"What's going on?"  
  
"With what?"  
  
"This."  
  
"Oh......This this?"  
  
"No the other this." Lorelai rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Yes this this."  
  
"Well....."  
  
"Did you want to find out some time?"  
  
"Do you mean like a-"  
  
"No."  
  
"Oh...."  
  
"No, no, not no like that. It's just that, neither of us like..."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"So maybe we could figure...."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"So basically what we're saying is...is that we are....we both...I...you-"  
  
"LUKE!" Luke's head shot up in dread and he tried to swallow, his mouth suddenly very dry.  
  
"Nicole." He said nervously. Lorelai stood up quickly and made a mental note to kill Rory for leaving her alone. 


	7. So if red means go Green means stop Ummm

Teensy Little A/N- I kinda forgot about a character for a few chapters there. Can you guess who? Sorry about it, I kinda got caught up in the rest of the action. So I'm basically sticking with the idea that he was hanging around with Rory, or the rest of the team, or some of the townies when stuff was happening, basically in the background. But I had to pop him back in. Sorry if it seems weird. And thanks for all the reviews guys. They've been great. Enjoy!  
  
********************************  
  
Nicole climbed back out of the car. The phone call had gone on longer than she expected and she wanted to get back to Luke as soon as possible. It was definitely not safe to leave him alone with Lorelai today. Nicole was starting to get more and more frustrated with Luke as well. It was feeling more and more like she was the one intruding on a relationship whenever she was with Luke, not the other way around. She felt herself getting angry at him, and at her. What right did she have to Luke. Nicole was the one who Luke was married to. Lorelai was the one who had had the last ten years to do something if she had liked Luke, but didn't. And she wasn't going to now. It was Lorelai's fault that she had waited so long. Luke had been willing. Nicole knew he was still willing too. But that ship had sailed and the sun had set on it and every other possible bad cliche. Nicole had Luke now. She felt herself getting even angrier as she crossed the lot and saw the whole town gathered in the living room. Stupid balloon room. At least Nicole knew where Lorelai got her penchant for extravagantly idiotic ideas. They were all staring at something. Probably Lorelai. Nicole walked furiously quickly towards them. They were still blocking the way and she couldn't see what they were looking at. She came up behind the couch and no one had even noticed her yet. She looked over Patty's shoulder at the list of wagers and her jaw snapped shut.  
  
"What is this!" Everyone turned around and stared. "Well? What is it." Nicole yelled, looking around at all the guilty faces. "What is wrong with you people? How can you be betting on a marriage falling apart over another woman? How-" Something suddenly dawned on her and she scanned the crowd. "Where's Luke?" No one said anything. She turned and glared at Rory. "Where is she?" Nicole was fuming, but Rory didn't say anything, just stared back at her levelly. "Where are they?" She saw Sookie's eyes flit towards the tree and pushed through the crowd. She stopped dead when she saw them. Lorelai's head was against his neck, her body leaning against his chest as she sat between his legs. His arms were around her waist and hers were over top, running her hand over his fingers as they whispered to each other. If Luke hadn't been her husband, she would of thought that the two of them looked cute together like that. But he was. And it wasn't. She started off towards the tree as fast as she could without running. She was just a few steps away when she spoke out, or rather yelled out.  
  
"LUKE!" She saw both of their heads snap around to look at her. Lorelai was speechless for once, scrambling to get up.  
  
"Nicole." That was all Luke could manage to get out.  
  
"LUKE!" Nicole smacked him in the arm hard. But Luke didn't flinch, or move, or do anything. He just stood there looking confused. But Lorelai glared at Nicole and took a step forward from beside the tree.  
  
"Excuse me?! No physical violence against Luke!" Nicole turned at her.  
  
"YOU stay out of this." She spat, turning back to Luke. " What the HELL is going on Luke?"  
  
"I-"  
  
"You what? You thought I wasn't going to find out? How long has this been going on?"  
  
"It hasn't-"  
  
"I swear Luke, if you say that you two are just friends one more time, I'm actually going to kill you." Right now it looked like she was thoroughly willing to follow through on her threat.  
  
"Nothing happened, nothing has, nothing is...nothing." Luke was rambling. He had taken his hat off to run his hand through his hair and now he was twisting it in his hands, his eyes on the ground. " I...we....nothing happened Nicole."  
  
"Then what was this! This wasn't nothing Luke. I went to college. I went to law school. I'm obviously not stupid. What, have you been having some kind of.....affair or something? Because you really have to work on the secrecy part. Go knows neither of you have been able to keep your hands off each other in the past week. So what do you guys do? Do you just wait until I leave and then she sends you some signal, like turns on her red light or something and you two sneak upstairs? "  
  
"WE'RE NOT SLEEPING TOGETHER!" Lorelai yelled at her, looking like Nicole had just slapped her. " I don't go around sleeping with married men. Luke TOLD you nothing happened, and that means NOTHING HAPPENED!"  
  
"Oh yeah, I'm sure. That doesn't mean you haven't tried." Nicole looked at her with loathing, but Luke was just staring at her.  
  
"You can't talk about me like this. You know absolutely nothing about what there is between me and Luke. I'm not some slut okay?" Lorelai was shouting in outrage, her voice laced with hurt.  
  
"You got pregnant at sixteen and I don't exactly see the father around, so I just assumed." Nicole looked at Lorelai as if challenging her to try something. For a minute it looked like Lorelai was going to fly at Nicole, but instead she just swallowed, glanced at Luke, and started walking. Luke could see her wiping her eyes.  
  
"LORELAI!" He started to go after her but Nicole grabbed his arm. Lorelai didn't look back, just got into the jeep and drove away. The whole town was staring at the scene and no one seemed able to do or say anything. Sure, Luke was never part of one of the town scandals that didn't involve Taylor's general insanity. But this was bigger than that. This was Luke and Lorelai, and no one could tear themselves away. It was like watching a car accident.  
  
"I'm not done yet." There was no emotion in Nicole's voice, but her eyes were a completely different story. She hated Luke for not loving her the way she loved him. And she hated even more that there was someone else that he did love that way.  
  
"What's wrong with you?" Luke tried to pull away, looking after Lorelai's car.  
  
"Why am I the villain in all of this. You're the one off with some other woman."  
  
"Nothing happened Nicole, alright. I would never do anything while I was still married."  
  
"So what were you planning to do?"  
  
"I want to finalize the divorce." Nicole looked at him for a minute, then shook her head and gave a short bitter laugh.  
  
"No."  
  
"I just-Wait. What do you mean no? I want to finish this divorce. You can't say no." Luke stopped trying to pull away and looked at her.  
  
"Well, I'm standing right here and I'm saying it...so actually I think I can."  
  
"But legally, I mean.... can you actually do that?" Luke was looking confused and worried.  
  
"Luke.....Let me put it this way. I don't care." Nicole glared at him triumphantly, but Luke shook his head.  
  
"Why do you still want to be married to me?"  
  
"Because I loved you Luke! Because you made a fool of me going around with her. Because you care more about her than you could ever care about me. And I hate you for that. " Luke just stared at her for a minute, and Nicole glared back, then around at the crowd. She shook her head at him and sniffed, then spun around. She climbed into her car and Luke just watched her drive off. He turned his head and saw the entire town staring at him.  
  
"PRIVACY! HAVE ANY OF YOU EVER HEARD OF IT!" Luke shouted before he stormed off, slamming the door of his truck shut and pulling away in a cloud of dust. Rory looked at Emily and was almost in tears.  
  
"I have to...I have go and..... go and find Mom." She started rifling through her pockets for her keys, but Emily grabbed her hand gently.  
  
"Give them a few minutes." She looked down the road that the three cars had sped away on and frowned.  
  
"I hope he chooses the right one." Babette murmured, looking from Miss Patty to Morey.  
  
"Should we start the game?" Taylor announced, but everyone just turned and glared at him. " Or we could postpone...."  
  
"Rory, why don't you drive Marty home. You can bring his car back with you to Yale Sunday and then we can pick you up next week for dinner and your mother will be able to drive you home so you can take your car back with you the week after.." Rory looked up the street, then nodded reluctantly, wanting to go find Lorelai, but knowing that she needed time. Marty tried to smile encouragingly and Rory passed him the keys, before joining him in his car. Everyone was slowly filtering towards the parking lot, while Sookie and Jackson were helping to deflate and fold up the living room. Richard looked at Emily, whose mouth was pursed tightly while she serenely beat a chair into a submissive folded plastic pile.  
  
"You know, I can't say I think much of this Nicole woman." Emily looked at him with a stony glare, but just shook her head. Richard placed an arm around her shoulder. " We should go home and let them sort this out. It really is up to them." Emily nodded slowly, and they packed up the rest of the furniture in silence. As they drove off, Sookie and Jackson packed Davey up in the carrier.  
  
"She really does have the worst timing in the world. All these years and NOW she finally realizes, when he's married. I'm so thankful we didn't have a Nicole."  
  
"The way she hits? Me too." Sookie rolled her eyes.  
  
"Come on Jackson. Let's get Davey home. It has been a looong day."  
  
**********************************  
  
Lorelai slammed the door of the jeep shut and stepped hard on the gas pedal. She knew that everyone was staring and she didn't care. She wasn't going to stand there while that.......Luke had called after her, but she hadn't turned around. She was too angry, too embarrassed. Nicole, she had no idea what there was between her and Luke. Then again, Lorelai wasn't too sure either. She kept running things through her head as the car lead itself towards her house. She didn't go after married men, or guys in relationships. She wasn't a homewrecker, and she definitely wouldn't sleep with them. But what if Nicole hadn't interrupted them when she had been practicing with Luke, or right now by the tree. Lorelai had a sneaking suspicion that she would have wanted to kiss him. And if that wasn't going for a married man... But it wasn't married man. It was Luke. She sped right through the red light in the middle of town.  
  
"Like to see Taylor stop me now." She hissed to herself. What was there between her and Luke....her and Luke....Luke.......she sighed. Luke. Since when did Luke warrant a sigh like this. She pulled the car into the driveway and tumbled out. Not sure what to do or where to go. She started towards the house, but her eyes fell on the chuppa that was standing forlornly in the yard, a few leaves blowing across it. Lorelai felt just how the chuppa looked. Man, how cliche is that. Sad. Pathetic. Stop being so melodramatic Lorelai.  
  
"This sucks." She stumbled over and sat down in the middle of the chuppa floor and buried her head in her hands. " This really really sucks. REALLY."  
  
********************************  
  
Nicole was fuming when she slammed the car door. She was going to Luke's and she was grabbing everything she had ever left there and she was going back to New York and she wasn't going to answer his phone calls when he tried to call about the divorce. They could just stay married forever for all she cared. She knew this was impractical. Foolish actually. But she wanted to be foolish and petty and mean right now. It was pissing her off even more that Luke hadn't really even cheated on her. He hadn't even kissed , let alone sleep with...her. She knew he was too good of a guy to do anything. And anyway, she would have know if he had finally kissed Lorelai. Hell, just lying on the grass with her made him glow, if that was possible for Luke. If he kissed he'd probably explode in a freaking ray of light. Hell, the most she'd ever got from him in comparison was a weak spark. And he didn't even cheat on her. If it had been a fling, or something meaningless, maybe...but he hadn't done anything. She was too important to him to do any under shady circumstances. It hurt even more that he hadn't done anything. That meant that he was willing to wait, that he wanted this enough to want it to be right.  
  
"I hate this!" Nicole yelled at the red light as she speed through it. She knew she wouldn't hit anything. There wasn't anything around in this stupid little town to hit. There wasn't anything . There wasn't anything left for her in this stupid little town. Nicole sighed. She pulled her car to a screeching halt outside the diner and took out the keys she still had. She wanted to want to smash something, ruin something of his, but she didn't. Damn it. Why did he have to be so damn respectful about loving someone else? Why couldn't he be some scummy lecherous creep? Why couldn't she just hate him instead of wanting him to be happy? She stormed up the stairs and started to grab all of her stuff from around the apartment. Just a sweater and some shoes, a few bags, a picture of her she didn't really think he was going to need anymore. She stopped for a minute, standing in the middle of the room, and looked around. This was better. At least it was now, at least it was over before it got worse. If Lorelai hurt him now, she would.....Nicole collapsed on the couch, dropping her head in her hands. She took a few minutes, just breathing, trying to wrap her mind around everything, then grabbed a pencil and Luke's order pad of the table next to her.  
  
***********************************  
  
Luke drove angrily towards the town square. He didn't know what to do, or where to go. He wanted to find Lorelai, but he had to talk to Nicole. They had to sort all of this out. Since when did this get-Well, it had always been this confusing for him. But now it was public and confusing. Lorelai, Nicole, Lorelai, Nicole, turn left, turn right, left, right, left, right. Luke's hands gripped tightly on the wheel of his truck as he pulled around the corner. He could see Nicole's car parked in front of the diner. He knew Lorelai's Jeep would be parked in her driveway. Great, all these years without a choice, at least not one he had the guts to make, and now he had the chance to make it. But did he make it and clean everything up afterwards, or was he supposed to clean every thing up and then go after it...her. If he did, would that mean everything with Nicole would go from terribly, terrible, horrible bad, to somehow, if it was possible, worse? And if he didn't go find Lorelai now would it be too late? Or should he go at all. What if he was wro- no, he wasn't going down that road. There were signs, and there were signals, and there were vibes, and there were gestures, and there were almost words. Not wussing out on this now. Not now. Not this time. He wasn't going down that old crappy road. But what road now? Luke pulled up to the traffic light, which had turned green, and stopped the truck. Left or right, deal with Lorelai first or Nicole. Luke looked down both of the streets, took a deep breath and nodded. He brought his hands to the wheel, reached over, and turned off the truck, in the middle if the street. Taylor would have had a coronary. He opened up the door, trying hard not to slam it shut as hard as he physically could, and climbed out. He walked to slowly towards the back of the truck, stopping in front of the wheel well. He turned outwards and crouched down. Luke sighed deeply, and leaning backwards, let his head smack into the side of the truck. His fists were clenched. He was going to go certifiable in a minute. Luke took a few slow breaths and closed his eyes, leaning against the truck and trying not to think about the throbbing pain at the back of his head.  
  
"UGH." 


	8. Douzy of a list

Another teensy A/N- Sorry it took so long, I have been really busy, even though I only had to do the editing and revision for this chapter. But I've already got the ending, or rather endings done. Which reminds me, anyone interested in helping me out with deciding which one to use, please email me at Lailawrites@hotmail.com, or say so in a review. And don't be shy. I really need the help. I've already written two endings and I've got another one floating around in this noggin of mine. Anyways, sorry about the lack of updates. I feel bad when I let my story dip to the bottom of the page, let alone page three. Sad and guilty. Alright, I'll try to be nicer this time around and have the next chapter up tomorrow or the next dayish, maybe the day after that. Okay, A/N not so teensy any more, so I'll stop. Enjoy!  
  
**************************************  
  
The town was slowly refilling as everyone returned to their houses as inconspicuously as possible. Lorelai was still sitting in the middle of the chuppa floor, Nicole was still up on Luke's couch, and Luke's truck was still parked in the middle of the street, where he occasionally leaned back and thumped his head on the side of the truck in exasperation. Taylor had made movements towards him several minutes ago, dying to list off the number of town decrees that prohibited this behaviour, but in an unusual act of good will and concern for Taylor's well being and life, Sookie, Jackson and Miss Patty had been able to distract him and drag him into Al's. They took a window seat, discreetly trying to watch Luke's struggle to decide.  
  
"Poor man..." Miss Patty cooed. "Such a decision. Although I would think that after today his choice would be clear."  
  
"I can't believe he's just parked in the middle of the street. He didn't even pull over. This is a blatant trespass of statutes 6, 34, and 379 b, c, and f of the town charter." Taylor whined, glaring at the traffic light as it changed from red to green and the truck stayed put.  
  
"Be quiet Taylor. He's not exactly causing a five mile traffic jam." Miss Patty scolded.  
  
"I hope he makes the right choice." Sookie sighed, wanting to go out there and beat Luke in the right direction with her baby bag.  
  
"That's Lorelai, right?" Jackson leaned over and whispered to Sookie. Sookie glared at him for a minute and then shook her head, speaking in a painfully slow voice.  
  
"Yes Jackson. We want him to choose Lorelai."  
  
"Alright, just checking."  
  
*********************************  
  
Luke smacked his head against the side of the truck again. He was either going to put a dent in it or put his head through the damn thing if he did this much longer. He had to decide soon or it would be to late to do either. He wanted to just get up and go...but he had to do this right. He couldn't screw this up anymore. No one had really said anything, and neither of them knew exactly when, or how it started, but they both knew that they wanted this now. The timing was just right. And completely wrong at the same time. Nicole and Jason were there. She was involved. Luke was, well, married. This had to be done carefully. It had to be done right. He knew that everyone was staring at him out of their windows.  
  
*********************************  
  
Sookie gasped and started smacking Jackson in the arm.  
  
"Ow, ow, oW, OW!!! Sookie!" Jackson exclaimed, shirking away and nudging the baby carrier a little farther away from Sookie just in case.  
  
"He's getting up!" She whispered excitedly. " Where's he going?" She tried to inconspicuously crane her neck to see wheat Luke was doing, but gave up. Wait a minute, she had a right to be interested in the two of them. They were both friends. And she wasn't going to get a neck injury just because she wanted to be polite. Sookie pulled her chair right up to the window. She watched as Luke pulled himself up, standing still for a minute as he straightened his shirt and his hat. He looked up, knowing that she would be there and looked right at her. Sookie grinned at him and made a shooing motion, trying to hurry him up. She watched him shake his head annoyedly. She could tell that he was shouting 'Why won't this stupid town just leave me alone.' in his head. He slowly took a deep breath and started to walk around the truck.  
  
"Go to Lorelai, go go go go, come on Luke, go to Lorelai's." Sookie was begging under her breath. " Come on Luke.....think Lorelai...."  
  
"It's his decision Sookie." Jackson put his hand on his arm.  
  
"But they deserve each other! They're right, and they just have to get together for once! It's such a perfect opportunity. I just- NO!" Sookie cried out and everyone jumped. She watched as Luke opened up the door to the diner and disappeared into the back. " No Luke! Bad Luke! Not NICOLE!" Everyone else in Al's started to grumble discontentedly, as well, even if only because of the amount of money they had riding on this. Sookie leaned back against Jackson and sighed. " I said Lorelai, not Nicole stupid. Maybe I should have tried reverse psychology."  
  
"You did your best." Jackson tried to comfort her.  
  
"I hate men. You're all so stupid." Sookie scowled, glaring at the diner door.  
  
"We're sorry."  
  
"This so isn't the way it's supposed to work!" Sookie started to protest, holding up her finger. " THIS is not happening. THIS cannot happen. I REFUSE to let my little boy grow up in a world where fairytales don't come true.' She turned back to Jackson, poking his in the chest.  
  
"Ow, Sookie..."  
  
"NO...this is not the world I want little Davey to grow up in. They were supposed to finally realize that they love each other. She's supposed to be the brave single mother who struggled with love and he's supposed to be the stoic but tender diner owner who found someone to mend his broken heart, and they are supposed to fall in love and I am supposed to be a bride's maid and cater their wedding and be the god parent to one of their children. He is not supposed to give up and go back to his miserable marriage and she is not supposed to lose him right when she finally realizes how much he means to her. I refuse to let this happen. No. It will not happen." She shook her head obstinately. " It is not happening. No, if I don't believe it's not happening, it's not happening. So there." Sookie had started off ranting, but by the end her voice was cracking.  
  
"Sookie..." Jackson hugged her sympathetically.  
  
"They're supposed to love each other." Sookie was crying into his shoulder.  
  
"I know."  
  
"The cake was going to be really good." She sniffed.  
  
*********************************  
  
Luke climbed the stairs slowly, not sure what he was going to find. The door to the apartment was open a little bit, and he just pushed it open, staring down at his feet.  
  
"I was wondering when you were going to show up." Nicole was still sitting down on the couch, but she turned around when he came in, tucking her legs underneath her body.  
  
"Look Nicole, I-" Luke started, glancing up uncomfortably.  
  
"Never meant to hurt me? I know."  
  
"I really didn't."  
  
"I know."  
  
"I just... I don't know." Luke looked awkward, trying to gesture something with his hands, but ended up just stuffing his hands in his pockets.  
  
"So this is the end?"  
  
"Nicole...."  
  
"I mean, I do love you Luke, but I have my pride and I can only keep saying you love me alone and fooling myself for so long."  
  
"I..."  
  
"So you really don't love me?" Nicole said simply, but Luke winced a little, and glanced up at her.  
  
"I tried."  
  
"Damn it Luke." Nicole ran her fingers through her hair and exclaimed exasperatedly. Why did you have to lead me on."  
  
"I just didn't want to hurt anyone." He tried to explain.  
  
"Well I think that plan backfired a little."  
  
"We just aren't right for each other. I just don't think we should see each other anymore."  
  
"Luke, I don't know if you care, but we are still married." Nicole wasn't so much angry anymore, as she was annoyed. It's not like she didn't see this as a possibility, she had just kind of hoped it would go away.  
  
"The only reason we're married is because we're not divorced yet." Luke protested.  
  
"I think that supposed to be the general basis of a marriage." She replied sarcastically.  
  
"That's not what I meant." Luke explained.  
  
"I know that! But I thought that when we decided not to get divorced, it was kind of saying that eventually, when we were actually ready, we wouldn't have to get remarried. It was there so that if and when we actually wanted marriage, when we needed it, there would be something right there, to make the whole thing easier."  
  
"Yeah, well I buy fire insurance, but I don't just keep it around because someday, I may decide that today is the day I really want to light the diner on fire to take advantage of it." Luke retorted sarcastically.  
  
"It's not the same thing Luke and you know it. You're just trying to avoid the real problem between us. You're not going to avoid this. We're going to get this all out in the open. I just know I can't waste my life with someone who won't be able to love me completely."  
  
"So what exactly do you want to know?" He asked awkwardly, knowing what was coming and not specifically liking it. Nicole looked him in the eye.  
  
"What does she mean to you Luke. And don't lie to me. Stop lying to your self, stop lying to me, and everyone else." Luke just stared at the wall.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"Well, is she your friend? Is she your best friend? Do you like her? Do you want her? Do you love her?! You have to decide Luke! This is important...which is it, or is it something else?" Luke swallowed. " Well?....." Nicole stared at him, getting more and more frustrated. " WELL! What is it!"  
  
"LOOK! I DON'T KNOW OKAY!" Luke burst out. He started to pace, and started to rant. " I DON'T KNOW! She's my friend, and my best friend. And she drives me crazy, and I can't stand her, but she can make me do anything she wants. And not because I have to or because she'll get angry, but because I want to. Cause I want to make her happy. It's more important than anything that her and Rory are happy and safe, and I hate it when they're not. And I like when she's happy, cause when she's happy, and I'm the one that makes her happy, even with something that's so stupid and Lorelai, like coffee, or just teasing, or extra whipped cream on her waffles, she smiles at me. And I'm stupid and I'm an idiot. But I like it when she smiles at me alright? It makes-me- feel-special." Luke grumbled, cringing at the last word, like he hated saying it, thought it was so cliche. Nicole just bit her lip and nodded a little bit.  
  
"But do you love her? Or even just like her? Even if you just want her-" Luke's nostrils flared angrily a little at the last part.  
  
"Well, of course I do lo..." He coughed uncomfortably." ......as a friend."  
  
"I don't mean friends Luke. If you two were like....you and Sookie maybe-"  
  
"So this is all just cause she isn't married?"  
  
"No Luke, it's because she's Lorelai Gilmore. You two can't be friends."  
  
"We are friends."  
  
"You can't stay friends. You're on call for her every need all day and all night, you hate it whenever she's with someone, but you make it through, cause you really actually do just want her to be happy. Your morning is a waste if she doesn't come in to talk to you, and when she does come in, you get this light in your eye that most women would die for. And I don't get that from you. I don't light you up Luke."  
  
"What am I, a Christmas tree?" Luke scoffed.  
  
"Do you think that means you're in love with her?"  
  
"Look Nicole, I don't know okay. All I know is that being with her makes me HAPPY okay?! And how am I supposed to know if I love her? It's not like I've every had the opportunity." Luke sighed, collapsing down on the couch.  
  
"If you did, would you?"  
  
"I-"  
  
"WOULD YOU?" She demanded, standing up in front of him  
  
"I don't know. How am I.....? Maybe I - If - I don't know. Maybe I would, alright?" Luke mumbled quietly to his hands.  
  
"Luke, you aren't sure of it yet, but I know that you already do love her, and it's only going to take that opportunity for you to really realize it. And if we stayed married then you would just start to hate me for stopping you from getting that opportunity. You wouldn't even know why, but every time you saw her, or talked to her, you'd hate me a little bit more. And I don't want to live like that. I can't live like that."  
  
"I wanted to make this right." Luke shook his head weakly.  
  
"You're such a good guy Luke." Nicole sighed. "Why did you have to be such a good guy? You can't even let me hate you for all this..... Look, you've got a chance now. I know it. You know it. She knows it too."  
  
"I can't do this if I'm married. It's not right." Nicole put her hand softly on his arm as he looked down at the floor.  
  
"I loved you Luke. I really did. More than you'll know.........I'll get my lawyers to write up the divorce papers again. No visitors this time, just signatures, I promise." Nicole smiled sadly, seeing the look on Luke's face. She kissed Luke one last time, but wasn't surprised when he didn't kiss her back. " Don't waste this. You're giving up a really good thing here. Don't make it for nothing......... And tell her I forfeited." Nicole said with a half smile. " She had too much of an advantage at the start. She already had you and I was trying to win you over."  
  
"Thanks for not trashing my stuff." Luke looked up at her.  
  
"You're welcome, as long at you weren't too fond of a couple of your mugs. I tried to make a cup of tea, but I got a little upset." Nicole grinned sheepishly, and glanced at the trash can in the kitchen.  
  
"I'm sorry." Luke put his hand on her shoulder and looked at her sincerely, but Nicole just nodded in return.  
  
"I know. Bye Luke." Nicole picked up the pile of things she had collected and closed the door quietly behind herself.  
  
"Bye Nicole." He said with a bit of a laugh. He rubbed his temples carefully for a minute, then leaned back on the couch and sighed. The divorce would be taken care of, so now there was only one more thing to do. He lifted his hat and ran his hand through his hair. Luke nodded for a minute and then found his way down the stairs and out to the street, where his truck was still sitting.  
  
****************************  
  
Nicole dropped her things in the back seat of her sedan, and pulled out the list of things she had to do which she had made while sitting on Luke's couch. She pulled a pen out of the glove compartment and checked off the first and second items on the list.  
  
"Break up with husband over his love of another woman....check. Replace anger with sadness and sense of helplessness, followed by acceptance....check. Alright...all I've got left is...." She scanned down the rest of her list. "....booking an appointment with my psychologist, arrange my divorce, call my parents, tell my friends.....and pick up some eggs and carrots." Nicole nodded, folded up the list, tucked it into her pocket and started the car, maneuvering around Luke's truck at the traffic light on her way out of town. 


	9. The Iceman Cometh AKA Stars Hollow Wars ...

Sookie lifted her head off of Jackson's shoulder and wiped her eyes with the corner of her sleeve.  
  
"You, uh, going to be okay?" Jackson asked.  
  
"I'll be fine." Sookie sniffed. " Poor Lorelai." She glanced over at the diner, thinking of all the possible ways to punish Luke for being such a jackass. So far her favourite one involved a long length of rope and a vegetable grater. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid Luke. It's not like everyone didn't already know how he felt about Lorelai. Who the hell did he think he was fooling going back to- " NICOLE." Everyone's heads snapped around to look at where Sookie was pointing.  
  
"What?"  
  
"NICOLE! Nicole just came out of Luke's." Sookie exclaimed. Maybe things were looking up. Nicole didn't look too happy. Not that Sookie ever found enjoyment in other people's misery, but there are exceptions to every rule." She's carrying a bunch of stuff. OHMYGO- They must have broken it off and she's taking back all her stuff! Jackson!!!!" Sookie squealed and squeezed Jackson's arm tight.  
  
"OW!"  
  
"Sorry, I'm just happy." Sookie was fidgeting in her seat, easing up on Jackson's arm.  
  
"But where's Luke?" Miss Patty was peering anxiously at the door to the diner as Nicole's car sped off.  
  
"She's gone, she's gone. Luke choose Lorelai." Sookie had picked up Davey and was dancing with him around the table.  
  
"Here he comes!" Miss Patty hissed, as though Luke would hear them if she spoke too loudly. They watched as he stepped slowly out of the diner, fishing around in his pockets for the keys. He locked the door and stepped back, looking up at the sign above the diner and nodded slowly. Luke climbed into the truck and sunk back, lifting his hat and running his hand through his hair. The truck grumbled a little as he turned the key, but eventually the engine turned over and Luke turned left around the corner, through a red light. Taylor cried out indignantly, but quieted up quickly at the glares from half the restaurant, mumbling something about a lack of respect and dignity.  
  
****************************  
  
Nicole rounded the corner and realized that her gas tank was almost empty. This was such a pain. She just wanted to get out of this town as fast as she could, but she pulled into Gypsy's right behind a silver sedan. Ducking out of the driver's side, she walked quickly over to the pump and snapped open the gas tank.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"What!" Nicole snapped at the man who was standing behind her. He frowned and stepped back a little, and Nicole sighed. " Sorry about that. I've just had a really, really bad day."  
  
"That's alright." Nicole noticed that he didn't look like the Stars Hollow type. He was big league, business man.  
  
"Was there anything I could do for you?"  
  
"Yeah, I was just going to surprise my girlfriend over at the baseball field, but I went there and everyone was gone." Nicole nodded her head.  
  
"Yeah, there was a bit of an......incident. I think everyone cleared out afterwards."  
  
"What happened?" Nicole shrugged.  
  
"Oh you know, I caught my husband under a tree with another woman." The guy winced sympathetically.  
  
"That's your bad day?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"That's pretty bad."  
  
"You're telling me."  
  
"Well, I don't want to bother you. Do you think you just could tell me where I might find Lorelai Gilmore?" Nicole gave an incredulous laugh.  
  
"You're.....Lorelai's boyfriend." She smiled at him and shook her head. Jason nodded, and looked at her strangely. "...... Lorelai's boyfriend. Well, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Nicole Leahy."  
  
"Nice to meet you. Jason Stiles." Jason shook her outstretched hand but still looked a little confused.  
  
"Oh, you probably don't know who I am. I'm Luke Danes's wife. But not much longer." She added sharply. No, she wasn't mad at Luke. But hell, just try and stop her from being pissed at Lorelai. " And I'm not sure where Lorelai is right now. She ran off after I caught her under the tree with Luke. Well, looks like my tank's full. I don't suppose I'll be seeing you again at anytime soon. Good luck Jason. Keep the change." Nicole handed forty dollars to the gas attendant, climbed into her car and drove away. Jason blinked slowly as she drove off, then climbed back into his own car and drove out of Stars Hollow. He picked up his cell phone, hoping that wherever Lorelai was, it wasn't her living room right now. He breathed a sigh of relief as the message machine came on.  
  
"Hey Lorelai, it's Jason. I couldn't find you, but I met someone named Nicole at the gas station. She said she found you under a tree with her husband. If this is all a misunderstanding, then give me a call and we'll laugh about it over dinner. If it's not, then don't. Bye." Shaking his head, he flipped his phone shut and tossed it into the glove compartment.  
  
*********************  
  
Luke pulled around the corner and could see Lorelai's house. He noticed that one of the front steps was slanted a little to the left. He'd have to come over and fix it up later. Wait, that wasn't what he was here for. He had more...important things to do. He hoped she would answer the door, knew he'd go in anyways even if she didn't. Luke pulled the truck up into the drive way and let it roll to a stop. He was about to climb out of the cab when he saw a lump on the chuppa. A Lorelai lump. He swallowed and turned the keys off in the ignition.  
  
***********************  
  
Lorelai was curled up on the floor of the chuppa, examining the terrible paint job on her toenails and thinking about Nicole. She hadn't meant to do anything slutty at all. She hadn't really MEANT to do anything. Never really thought of deliberately doing anything with Luke. It had just kind of .....happened. And in her defence, Luke hadn't really been complaining when they ended up holding hands. Then again neither had Lorelai. She was just starting into a good sigh when she heard wheels grinding up on the driveway. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Luke's truck and felt herself smile a little. She lifted up her head and turned to look at him. Luke was just sitting in the truck and looking at her. Lorelai waved to him and then beckoned to him to come on over. Luke nodded, undoing his seatbelt, and climbing out of the truck. He walked slowly across the leaves that were strewn across the lawn, not yet covered in snow, and Lorelai pulled herself up into a sitting position, leaning back on her palms. Luke crouched down next to the chuppa, crossing his arms.  
  
"So...."  
  
"So...." They looked at each other with raised eyebrows, but Lorelai was the first one to say anything to break the silence. " What took you and the elephant in the room so long to get here."  
  
"We're not in a room."  
  
"Thank you Mr. Literal. I was talking about the Nicolephant."  
  
"Took the last and fastest ticket out of Stars Hollow."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"Agh....." Luke shook his head. " Never would have worked out. I mean, you have to put work into a relationship, but it was getting a little......"  
  
"Too labour intensive?" Luke nodded.  
  
"So, you doing okay?" He put a hand gently on her shoulder and bent his head to look into her eyes. Lorelai looked up and nodded.  
  
"About as good as anyone who's had their mistakes rubbed in their face and been called a slut."  
  
"I'm sorry about that. There was not way she ever had the right to say anything like that. Don't even think about it ."  
  
"I think everyone in the town was thinking about it today."  
  
"Come on Lorelai. They know you. No one in this town believes Nicole."  
  
"Maybe Bootsy."  
  
"Bootsy's an idiot....And hey. At least you aren't the guy defacing the sanctity of his marriage." Luke rolled his eyes and shook his head.  
  
"SO that's what we were doing." Lorelai laughed. Luke looked awkward and frowned.  
  
"I don't know." Lorelai lifted up her hand and laid it down on Luke's arm. It took her a few tries to get out what she wanted to say.  
  
"A-........Wh-........IF-......Luke, where are we? What are we Luke? If I'm not a slut, then what exactly am I?"  
  
"You're...you're..I don't know. It's kinda like you're.....Like you're my hat." Luke tried aimlessly, gesturing vaguely as thought it would help to explain the thought he wanted to get out.  
  
"That's either sweet or disturbing and gross." Lorelai frowned. Luke took his hat off and played with it nervously.  
  
"Nicole called it my Lorelai hat."  
  
"Your what?"  
  
"She mentioned something about how it's the only hat I wear."  
  
"So?"  
  
"You bought me this hat." Luke said shyly, looking down at his hands. Lorelai grinned up at him.  
  
"Your Lorelai hat?" Luke nodded. " So I'm your hat?"  
  
"Yeah....I guess so." Luke rubbed the side of his face, looking a little confused. Lorelai looked up at him with the edges of her mouth twitching.  
  
"What does that even mean." She giggled.  
  
"Hell if I know." Luke shrugged, trying not to smile and failing. He grinned at her sheepishly as she laughed a little. She put her hand down on his arm and smiled, still laughing.  
  
"Thanks Luke. You've really helped clear this up."  
  
"I do what I can."  
  
"Always do everything you can for me Luke. That's why I love you." Lorelai said grinning. Luke gave her a strange look, a little questioning and a little confused, mostly unbelieving. Lorelai heard the flock of awkward silence flap nearer, and looked away, but it flew in and nested anyways. They both looked away for a little while. " So....where are we?"  
  
"Well....." Luke lifted his hat and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to think. " For me... it's just....You're here-You're always here." He explained.  
  
"Whether you want me to be or not." Luke smiled and continued in a wandering kind of way.  
  
"And I'm used to having you around. Used to the way you.....feel." Luke furrowed his brow, trying to figure if he had used the right word.  
  
"Like your hat." Lorelai tapped the brim knowingly, and Luke nodded, smiling.  
  
"Yeah...I guess so. I just- I'm so used to it that....I'm just not sure what IT is." Luke tried to explain what he was thinking about.  
  
"Okay."  
  
"You know what I'm trying to say."  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"You really know what it is I'm trying to say?" Luke frowned as Lorelai grunted and nodded her head.  
  
"Honestly? You know? You understand what I'm trying to say to you?" Luke started to give her strange looks. She was grunting in response every time he said something. Then he nodded his head, and started to grin, glaring at her playfully. " You're mocking me aren't you."  
  
"Maybe. Just a little." Lorelai pushed her index finger and her thumb tightly together, but as she looked at Luke with fake guilt she made the gap bigger. " Okay a lot. I'm just not used to you being the one with all the words coming out. It's like I suddenly hit the jackpot on the Luke Conversation Slot Machine after all these years and all of a sudden all these word started pouring out, and I didn't know what to do with all of them so I went into automatic mocking mode. It's my default."  
  
"You're giving me a headache."  
  
"You like it when I give you headaches."  
  
"You are a headache."  
  
"And yet I'm not giving myself to you. Hmmm...." Lorelai thought for a minute. " That was kind of a dirty thought. I really have to think before I talk."  
  
"I think in this case it is too late to teach an old dog new tricks." Luke smirked.  
  
"Did you just call me old...and a dog?" Lorelai raised her eyebrow.  
  
"I think so." Luke was shaking his head unbelievingly, like he wasn't sure what he had been thinking.  
  
"And you did that WHY?"  
  
"I don't know." Luke frowned.  
  
"Did we want to get back on topic before you dig yourself into an even bigger hole Mr. Danes."  
  
"Please." Luke sighed thankfully.  
  
"So....where do we go from here?"  
  
"... I think...maybe we should wait. A lot has happened in the last little while. We'll give it a little time, figure it out somehow."  
  
"That's a good idea. I'm a little more than confused right now."  
  
"I'm still married. I don't think I should be married if....."  
  
"I have to break up with Jason. I think we're still officially together."  
  
"Officially?"  
  
"And only officially." Lorelai insisted honestly. No more Jason of course. He hadn't really been a serious thing anyways...but what exactly did she have now instead......" SO. This should going to be pretty interesting." Lorelai furrowed her brows.  
  
"Yeah, well, we should start a support group." Luke said sarcastically, standing up and tugging on his hat. Lorelai smiled at it. She stood up to say goodbye and looked at Luke standing there for a minute. He stared at the ground for a moment, then looked up at Lorelai and saw her staring at him. He flushed up a little, but Lorelai smiled at him and wrapped her arms around his chest. Luke awkwardly put his arms around her waist and heard her sigh as she relaxed against him.  
  
"Good sigh, bad sigh?" He asked cautiously.  
  
"Is this like good idea/bad idea from Animaniacs?"  
  
"No."  
  
"No fun. Okay. Good sigh then." Luke knew that he should get going, but didn't really want to let go. He put one hand overtop of the other on Lorelai's back and brought her a little closer..  
  
"I should get going." He mumbled.  
  
"One more minute please." Lorelai grinned and Luke gave a little laugh. Lorelai laid her head on his shoulder and looked up at him. " You're the best friend a girl could ask for. You know that?"  
  
"I do what I can." Luke mumbled. Lorelai took a deep breathe and gave Luke a gentle squeeze. Luke carefully brought up one hand and gently stroked her hair absently. Lorelai sighed and pulled back reluctantly, keeping her hands on his waist as Luke dropped his into his pockets. He glanced away, then looked back at her.  
  
"I'll see you-" He let his sentence hang in the air. The sun had started to set already.  
  
"Soon. You've got the magic." Lorelai nodded.  
  
"The coffee." Luke suggested, confused.  
  
"Sure." Lorelai said lightly, giving him a teasing grin. Luke shook his head. He rubbed her shoulder gently.  
  
"I'll see you soon Lorelai."  
  
"Bye Luke." Lorelai sat back down in the middle of the chuppa and grinned, watching as he walked slowly towards the truck, climbing in and giving her a short wave before pulling away. This was good, definitely good. Not great...not yet. But definitely good. 


	10. Sybil Vs Jack in the throwdown hoedown s...

A/N- So, I deleted a couple chapters.....well, it happened like this. I reread my story, and after about chapter 9.....Well, I couldn't even understand it and I wrote it. So I'm starting again and going more down the path that I originally wanted to. So here it is, the new chapter 10. Hopefully it's better than the last one....And I do plan to use parts from the old chapters, so if there were any parts that you were particularly fond of....tell me, I can try and work them in, or even better, I may just be reassured in my choice to re-integrate it. AAAAAAAAnyways. Thanks.  
  
********************************************************  
  
Luke climbed back into his truck and started off towards the diner, trying to focus on something other that Lorelai. He was sure that people would start coming into the diner soon. There was supposed to be some sort of dinner thing after the tournament, but since they hadn't even played the last game, considering two teams were incapacitated and another had one third of the team storm off, he was guessing that there wasn't going to be a dinner. Which meant that everyone would be going out for dinner, because they had nothing planned themselves. But that didn't really matter. Sure, it meant he'd be tired tonight, well, more tired than usual. And that meant that he wouldn't do much thinking. Not that he was in a rush........but it was going to be difficult...and frustrating....... to just sit down and find time... He wandered back into the diner and let Caesar know that he was back before climbing the stairs to the apartment. Luke pulled off the baseball jersey, tossing it into a dresser drawer and pulled on a regular shirt. Back down the stairs and back to work.  
  
********************************  
  
Lorelai stood back up from her spot and dusted off her hands on the back of her sweats. She looked around the yard and wandered slowly towards the house, her grin turning slowly into a frown. That conversation with Luke....it.....was....it meant........it had been so.....well..........so damn ambiguous actually. Luke had said that he felt something. But he didn't know what. So...did that mean that he wasn't sure what kind of feeling feeling it was.....or did he not know whether it was a friendly feeling or a feeling feeling. Or....well, they were both breaking off with their apparently–not-so- significant others. And they were going to take time with this, make sure they did this right, that they were sure. Whatever this was. The feeling of relief and happiness that had been here when she had been out in the yard with Luke was now officially muddled up with confusion and a healthy dose of panicky nervousness. Where was Rory..... Lorelai sighed, rubbing her temples and frowning, and flopped up the stairs. She pulled on her pyjamas, even though it was only five o'clock. When she got back downstairs she noticed the answering machine beeping and pressed play before sitting down on the couch.  
  
"Hey Lor..." Jason. She listened to the message. He gave her the easy out. Just don't call him. And for now that would work. Lorelai knew she should call, but she wanted to wait, at least until after she had a chance to talk to Rory. She'd call Jason soon. Well, eventually  
  
************************************  
  
Rory had dropped Marty off at his house and was speeding back to Stars Hollow. As she passed Luke's she saw his truck there and a few customers filtering in, so if he had gone to their house, Luke was back already. This meant that it was safe for her to get home to her mom. Rory had a sudden thought and pulled into Doose's, grabbing a couple buckets of Ben and Jerry's. Whatever had happened, Rory had a feeling it would take at least two containers of Chunky Monkey before it was all talked out. She pulled into the driveway, hopped out of the car and ran into the house, slamming the door behind her.  
  
"Mom? MOM." Rory shouted from the kitchen.  
  
"Rory hun! Living room! Bring the ice cream." Rory stopped and furrowed her brow.  
  
"How did you know?"  
  
"I trained you well."  
  
"Good point." Rory threw two of the buckets of ice cream into the fridge.  
  
"Oh, and bring the nail polish." Rory stopped what she was doing.  
  
"Nail polish?"  
  
"Yeah, nail polish, some spoons and whatever is in the bag."  
  
"Are you sure?" Rory continued cautiously. "You don't want any chocolate syrup, or marshmallow fluff? Maybe a change of clothes and a map of Rhode Island?"  
  
"You need a map for Rhode Island?" Lorelai wondered.  
  
"So....No road trip gear?" Rory probed, but Lorelai just kept babbling.  
  
"Do you think we still have that red one I got last year? What was it called.....Vixen, or streetwalker.....or......."  
  
"Red what?" Rory asked stopping as she reached into the utensil drawer and looking towards the living room.  
  
"Nail polish."  
  
"You're serious?"  
  
"Serious about my nice red nail polish and some ice creamy times with my little girl."  
  
"Really?" Rory peaked her head around the corner and saw Lorelai crunched up on the couch, dressed in pyjamas. "So.......good?" Rory said hesitantly. Lorelai frowned, then nodded her head slowly, and her pigtails swung from side to side.  
  
"Yes, good....but." Rory raised her eyebrows and dropped the ice cream onto the couch.  
  
"Oh, do tell. I want to hear the good, and then well investigate that ominous but." Lorelai grinned a little.  
  
"Ominous but."  
  
"Mom."  
  
"Oh come on, you were thinking the same thing. Now nail polish!"  
  
"Mom!"  
  
"Nail polish first, stories after!" Rory groaned in protest, but rolled off the couch and went up the stairs to the bathroom. Knocking a couple hairbrushes and compacts into the sink as she searched, Rory finally found two bottles, hidden behind the package of fluorescent band-aids. She climbed back down the stairs, and hopped onto the couch, turning the television on. Lorelai reached out as Rory handed her a spoon.  
  
"Cherry Garcia or Chunky Monkey?"  
  
"Monkey me up." Lorelai replied as Rory passed the bucket over. Rory looked at the Lorelai's face as she struggled with the lid.  
  
"Hey Mom.......The nail polish isn't for...." She waited in anticipation. Lorelai finished her first spoonful and looked up at Rory. She nodded as she licked the spoon clean.  
  
"Wow. This is serious. Nail polish pow wow. We haven't pulled simultaneous toe-paint since we were deciding between Harvard and Yale." Rory said as Lorelai nodded.  
  
"You've got lots of ice cream?"  
  
"There's a cookie dough and another monkey in the freezer. Do you want Streetwalker or Grape Galaxy?" Rory asked, holding up the bottle of red and deep sparkle purple polish.  
  
"Streetwalker. I'm in a red mood." Lorelai took the purple bottle from Rory.  
  
"Red for love?" Rory suggested mischieviously.  
  
"Oh yeah, well purple for.....for...uh....." Lorelai tried to retort.  
  
"Asphyxia?" Rory suggested.  
  
"Yeah." Lorelai replied.  
  
"Sure." Rory nodded. "Soooo..... What happened?" Rory inquired as they lifted their feet into each others laps and shook the bottles of polish.  
  
***************************************  
  
"So then you hugged and he left?"  
  
"Yeah, and now I don't really know what we're doing." Lorelai frowned and hung her head back over the arm of the couch. Rory licked her spoon pensively, looking at her upside down reflection.  
  
"Well, you decided to break up with Jason."  
  
"Yes. Oh, and remind me to call him." Rory frowned.  
  
"Okay. And Luke said that he was going to finalize his divorce."  
  
"But he said that before the whole Nicole at the ballpark showdown hoedown  
  
throwdown."  
  
"Hoedown?"  
  
"It's all the plaid. It's gone to my head." Rory grinned but Lorelai pointed her finger at her.  
  
"Not the time for teasing! Mommy's pulling a Sybil."  
  
"Multiple personalities?"  
  
"Mental breakdown."  
  
"Sybil, classic psychology case Sybil?"  
  
"Sybil Sheppard Sybil."  
  
"Oh, okay, continue."  
  
"Back to crazy?"  
  
"Before that."  
  
"Luke's decision to break it off with Nicole having nothing to do with me, and therefore not being possible to use it as evidence of any kind in this situation?"  
  
"That would be the one."  
  
"Uuuuuggh. I'm hopeless. I'm going to be sad and lonely forever."  
  
"You are not."  
  
"I am. I can't get a man. And when I can, I can't keep him. I'm going to end up sad and alone with hundreds of cats and old newspapers." Lorelai proclaimed.  
  
"You're being ridiculous."  
  
"No. I'm not. I'm going to end up the scary cat lady who lives by herself, and all the kids will be afraid, and they're run past my house and avoid it at night. 'Run!' They'll yell. 'Run away from the scary cat lady!' And then I'll throw my cats at them from my rocker on the porch, because I can't move because my metabolism will finally slow down and my eating habits will make me balloon up to 500 pounds, and I'll drink my coffee laced with Jack Daniels and end up....crushed...under a pile of Shop- rite ads from 2002." Lorelai exclaimed, waving her hands.  
  
"I promise you will not met your ending under a pile of adds for orange juice and luncheon meat."  
  
"Really promise?" Lorelai asked desperately.  
  
"Don't worry. I will have put you in a home by then." Rory nodded and Lorelai tossed a pillow at her.  
  
"You really aren't helping."  
  
"More ice cream?" Rory suggested.  
  
"Yes." Rory grabbed the next two buckets from the kitchen and passed one to Lorelai as she sat back down.  
  
"Luke's going to make me fat." Rory commented, looking at the ice cream, but eating a spoonful at the same time.  
  
"Yeah, well he's been doing it for years, he's just found new methods."  
  
"Hey! That fat crack just totally got you downgraded to the semiprivate room at that home."  
  
"Don't worry, I'll just move in with you."  
  
"Uh......"  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Weeeelll..... It's just that I don't like cats."  
  
"But they're my babies!"  
  
"So am I."  
  
"But they love me back."  
  
"Good point."  
  
"So back to the problem at hand?"  
  
"Good transition."  
  
"Thank you. Okay, analysis goes like so....Yes, Luke decided to divorce Nicole before he said anything about you two."  
  
"Yes, and not helpful."  
  
"Patience. Okay, when did he tell you this."  
  
"When we were eating lunch."  
  
"Okay, and what were you doing when he told you."  
  
"Talking with Luke."  
  
"Yes, but WHERE were you when Luke told you this."  
  
"Under a tree."  
  
"Okaaaay. In what position were you in when Luke told you this."  
  
"Uh...Leaning against him."  
  
"So he said this during your pre-almost-kiss lean?"  
  
"Stop calling it that. It was not a pre-kiss lean. OR a pre-almost kiss lean. It was just a lean. A simple, meaningless, platonic lean." Lorelai stressed with her hands.  
  
"Sure." Rory nodded. "If you say so."  
  
"I know what you mean by that. Take it back."  
  
"I didn't say anything."  
  
"You implied. De-implify." Lorelai demanded nervously.  
  
"So anyways, my original point was that the situation shows that even if Luke's breaking up with the anti-you-"  
  
"Nicole?"  
  
"Nicole."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"If the breaking up has nothing to do DIRECTLY with you, he still obviously likes you a little bit at least."  
  
"A little bit?" Lorelai asked quietly.  
  
"Come on mom, you know if I implied anything more than a little bit you'd freak out just like you always do when anyone mentions Luke liking you." Rory sighed. Lorelai frowned and stared at the pillow in her lap.  
  
"Yes, however you seemed to have overlooked the craziness of the situation of the past 24 hours, in which I have actually been freaked out about the prospect of Luke NOT liking me."  
  
"Okay, so me saying that Luke likes you doesn't freak you out anymore."  
  
"Still a little."  
  
"Okay, well.....What do you want your conversation to mean?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"If you could interpret it the way you wanted, what would it have meant."  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"Yes you do."  
  
"That Luke wanted to maybe do something with me, and that he wanted to do it the right way, so he didn't want to rush this and wanted to be Nicole related items free before we actually did something."  
  
"Then that's what it means."  
  
"What if it's not?"  
  
"What if it is?"  
  
"But what if it's not."  
  
"Yes. But what if it is."  
  
"What if it is?" Lorelai frowned.  
  
"That's a good thing." Rory replied brightly.  
  
"Yeah, it is....isn't it." Lorelai looked thoughtfully at the chunks of chocolate in her ice cream, slowly fishing one out.  
  
"Wow," Rory said softly. "You really do like him." Lorelai looked up, her brows drawn together and gave a little nod. She smiled a little.  
  
"How can you tell?"  
  
"You just bypassed the perfect set up for a Martha Stewart joke." Rory replied, nodding seriously.  
  
"I'm slipping in my old age." Lorelai smiled.  
  
"I'll let it pass this once."  
  
"You are a kind and generous girl."  
  
"Thank you. I have no idea where it came from." Rory shrugged her shoulders.  
  
"Don't let it happen again." Lorelai warned.  
  
"And think positive. Think Luke likes you. Use the power of your mind." Rory suggested.  
  
"Think the power of my mind could get us dinner while I'm still on the couch?"  
  
"No, but I do think the power of your legs would be much more successful."  
  
"Ugh. I already changed." Lorelai whined.  
  
"Change again."  
  
"Can't you go?"  
  
"I have to wait for a call."  
  
"I can stay and take a message!" Lorelai offered.  
  
"Alright, just tell Grandma I will call her back in half an hour, and don't let the machine get it because she knows that we're home." Rory started to get off the couch, but Lorelai frowned and rolled off.  
  
"I'm only changing my bottoms!" Lorelai called down from her doorway. She slumped back down the stair a few minutes with a pair of jeans on and pulled on her coat.  
  
"You're an evil genius. I knew I was in trouble when you started outsmarting me a few years ago. I should pick you up a lab coat and a henchman while I'm out." She pointed at Rory.  
  
"But that's why I keep you around. And I have become craftier."  
  
"I'll be back soon." Lorelai smiled.  
  
"Talk to Luke."  
  
"Stick your fingers in the electrical socket."  
  
"Bad advice." Rory frowned.  
  
"Ask a stupid question......." Lorelai replied, looking back over her shoulder.  
  
"Bye Igor."  
  
"Bye Doc-tor." Lorelai drawled, dragging her foot along the ground on the way out the door.  
  
********************************  
  
Lorelai.....Lorelai...Lorelai....Lorelai.....  
  
"Luke! Can I get my food?" A customer yelled at him.  
  
"Oh, uh, yeah... just let me grab it." Luke frowned and turned to the kitchen. He had been right. Everyone was coming in from the tournament. Because none of them could just be bothered to get up and find something in their own house."Caesar, do you have that-never mind." Luke looked down and shook his head, seeing the order right in front of him. He took it over to the table and did the rounds for refills and check- ups, then went back to the counter. Lorelai.....Lorelai......Lore- Damn it. He couldn't even do his job. He had to think, but he was busy during the day, and at night he was mostly too tired to think. But she kept leaking into his head and he'd forget whole tables's orders. Not to mention that all the looks and whispers from the customers really weren't helping much. He knew at any minute Miss Patty would be over to say something, or Taylor would mention a little something about him leaving his truck in the middle of the street, which would just push him over the edge, and lead to even more gossip. He needed to do this. Think. Okay....No, not right now. Lane was coming in tomorrow. She had the week after Thanksgiving off from school too. Apparently for giving some extra time for more ardent, time consuming personal thanks giving religious thing. Maybe....Maybe if she could come in and work for the week....Maybe Luke could head out somewhere, go up the his cabin. Get some thinking done in the quiet, by himself, no interruptions or diversions. He'd talk to her when she came in tomorrow.....or he could just call her now. Luke grabbed the phone off the wall and dialed up the Kim's, tapping his finger impatiently on the back of his neck.  
  
"Hey, is Lane there? Oh, yeah, it's Luke. No, no, I still need you in tomorrow. Did you want to pick up a few extra shifts this week? How many...well.....all of them. Yeah. No, I'm fine. I just have something to do. Yeah. Starting? Uh, well, tomorrow if you can, but- Tomorrow's okay? Alright. Well, I'm giving the keys to Caesar, so don't worry about it. He'll help you out, and Tom's in tomorrow and Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night and all next weekend too, so....Alright. No, I'll probably be gone. I'll call later to check in. Thanks Lane. Yeah, okay. Bye." Luke hung the phone up and leaned into the kitchen.  
  
"Hey Caesar, I have to get out for a couple days. Lane's going to work the week, but I need you here to cook. That alright?"  
  
"Do I get overtime?"  
  
"Yes, you get overtime Caesar. Will you do it?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess, I need the money."  
  
"Stop. Really. You're concern is unsettling." Luke rolled his eyes. "I'm going to go up  
  
to pack once it slows down out there."  
  
***************************************************************  
  
It was dark already, maybe nine o'clock by the time the diner slowed down. He was already exhausted by the day of softball, and other events, and he still had to drive up to the cabin. Luke tossed a few shirts and some pants into a bag. Some socks, some food from his cupboard, he'd pick up more on his way up, matches. No tackle box, it was too late in the season. He grabbed the duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder before climbing down his stairs and looking cautiously into the diner. He breathed a sigh of relief that Lorelai wasn't there, and told Caesar he was off.  
  
He took the long way out of town, the one that didn't cross Lorelai's route to the centre of town, and made his way to one of the smaller highways heading north. This was a good idea, he tried to tell himself. Just take a few days off. Get away from things. Get away from everyone. Get away from everyone in the diner who kept glancing at him like he might explode in a ball of fire, or break into a song and dance routine at any moment. Get away from her. Clear his mind. He had to think about what they were, or rather what he was going to do now. Think about what he was actually going to do now...now that....maybe they would actually move forwards for once. 


	11. Rebel Without a Pulse and Other Interest...

A/N- Uh... if any one is interested in having more regular updates....I really need a Beta. Really. The main real reason that I'm so slow lately is that I keep getting confused in my own story, and I just need some one to read over thing and give me suggestions and feedback...that way I can write with a clear head and you guys get a better story. Any one interested, just email or something. Don't be afraid. I don't bite. Any one who can review can help me out. Please? Well, I hope you guys enjoy!  
  
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Lorelai walked down the street determinedly. Luke had been right, The muscles in her legs were already aching from the unusual exercise and it was still the same day. She had a feeling that the burning feeling was going to be even worse tomorrow.  
  
She crossed the park and looked ahead of her. Go to Luke's and get some food. Not that hard. Do it everyday. Easy. Simple........ Yeah.....She looked at the door from her spot on the sidewalk, but couldn't see Luke inside. He must be in the back. Okay, plan of action. In and out, avoid him if you can. What's the fastest thing on the menu. Pie. Hmmm. Pie for dinner? Pie and a three minute egg? That would be fast. Disgusting, but fast. Lorelai frowned.  
  
"Just go inside." She told herself. A passerby stared at her strangely as she tried to push herself. She took a breath and resolved herself before grabbing the door handle. "Turn and pull. Turn and pull. Just turn it....and pull." Lorelai jerked the door open and stepped inside just as Lane stepped out of the kitchen. "OH! Lane!" Lorelai motioned her towards her and Lane glanced back at the kitchen before coming over. "What are you doing here? I thought you were off today?" Lorelai said quietly, glancing around herself.  
  
"Uh, yeah. Caesar called me to see if I could give a hand. They got an unexpected dessert rush." Lane said cautiously.  
  
"Right. Okay. I need you to do me a favour." Lorelai whispered.  
  
"Okay. Why are we whispering?"  
  
"Because. I need you to get a burger with ketchup, onions, pickles, no mustard, no tomato, one piece lettuce for Rory and a big plate of that pasta thing with the sausage and the cheese and saucey stuff, with extra cheese...and sausage....and saucy stuff. And I need you not to tell Luke that I'm out here and make sure he doesn't find out." Lorelai asked plaintively.  
  
"One," Lane began, not whispering, which caused Lorelai to glare threateningly at her. "I don't think I could disguise that order enough for Luke not to know it was you, and two, Luke's not here." Lane told her.  
  
"So, what, he's at Doose's or something? Okay...good, I can work with this. It gives me a little bit more time." Lorelai nodded, watching as Lane turned back to the counter.  
  
"Well.....he's not exactly at Doose's."  
  
"Where ever." Lorelai waved off. "Can you get me that food please Lane. I'm about five minutes from pulling a Donner Party and I'm on a time limit."  
  
"I......Uh....Yeah, okay." Lane finally gave in. She definitely didn't want to have to be the one to tell Lorelai that Luke was....well.....gone. Lorelai perched anxiously on a stool, swinging her legs from side to side as Lane went back into the kitchen to give her order to Caesar. Lorelai was getting nervous at the minutes passed by.  
  
"How long can it take to make two meals Caesar?" She yelled at the doorway, glancing at her watch and over at the doorway, expecting Luke to come in at any moment. Caesar appeared with a spatula in hand and an apron wrapped around his waist.  
  
"It's going to take a lot longer than I originally thought if you yell at me again."  
  
"Sorry." Lorelai apologized.  
  
"Three more minutes for the burger." Caesar told her.  
  
"Come on. Just give it to me raw. Rory likes her burger mooing." Lorelai glanced around impatiently.  
  
"Three minutes." Caesar confirmed.  
  
"Fine." Lorelai frowned and dropped her head onto her hand. It's not that she didn't want to see him. She wanted to see him. Had to see him. She just couldn't see him. Not yet. Not until she knew....and she knew that he knew. Because not knowing what he knew was making her so antsy that she was about ready to take up jogging for the heck of it. But she couldn't make her full decision with out being around him. It would just be weird. She'd have to do something about it......Lane emerged from the kitchen and handed Lorelai a couple of bags and two take out cups.  
  
"Ugh, didn't even have to ask! You are a god Lane."  
  
"Don't let my mother know." Lane grinned as Lorelai hopped down from the stool and headed out the door with a wave and a cautious look up and down the street.  
  
*********************  
  
Lorelai climbed up the dark steps with the Luke's bags in her hands, shifting them to knock on the door and open the knob.  
  
"Sookie? Jackson?" She stepped into the front hall and dropped the food on a table, looking around. "Sook?!"  
  
"Stop yelling!" Sookie hissed, as she climbed extremely carefully down the stairs.  
  
"Sorry!" Lorelai whispered as Sookie glanced up the stairway and nodded towards the door.  
  
"Outside." She opened the door slowly, wincing as it creaked and Lorlai grabbed the Luke's bags and followed her out onto the porch. As she closed the door behind her, Sookie sighed and sat down on the porch steps. "Davey's been crying for hours and we just got him to sleep. Jackson has been up with him all week so that I can get a little sleep, and with that, and everything today, he just finally collapsed asleep on the floor right next to the crib."  
  
"The first few months are rough. Colicky?" Lorelai nodded sympathetically, and Sookie opened her eyes up wide after a moment, turning to Lorelai with a questioning look and a glance at her begs.  
  
"Oh yeah. So.....How are you?"  
  
"Uh, fine."  
  
"With the whole....." Sookie waited. Lorelai smiled a little bit.  
  
"How much do you know?"  
  
"The last thing I saw was Nicole leaving and Luke getting back into his truck. What happened after that?" Sookie asked, obviously intrigued.  
  
"He came over, and we talked for a while."  
  
"That's it?"  
  
"Yeah...." Lorelai said undecidedly. Sookie frowned at her.  
  
"Yeah.........? What follows the yeah........."  
  
"I don't quite know yet. I mean, I want to talk to Luke. We said that we were going to take sometime to figure things out, but I don't want to cut myself off from him completely while I try to figure everything out. I'm just so confused." Lorelai groaned and dropped her head onto her arms.  
  
"Are you guys...." Sookie started.  
  
"Are we what?"  
  
"You know......"  
  
"Apparently I don't..."  
  
"Is this figuring......of a certain nature?"  
  
"What kind of nature?"  
  
"A romantic nature?" Lorelai nodded her head slowly.  
  
"Do you know what it is that you want?" Lorelai shook her head.  
  
"Okay... Do you want....." Sookie asked carefully, knowing how edgy Lorelai always got about her relationship with Luke.  
  
"Do I want what?"  
  
"Luke?" Sookie suggested.  
  
"And there's my problem." Lorelai groaned.  
  
"You want Luke!"  
  
"I don't know! Would maybe be the wrong answer? Because I'm thinking that maybe leaning towards yes might be mine."  
  
"Wow. This is big, this is huge, it....it's massively huge. It's.....there's no word for this!"  
  
"Hugemongous?" Lorelai suggested half-heartedly.  
  
"Close." Sookie agreed excitedly.  
  
"Biggantic?"  
  
"Noooo....I think I liked hugemongous better."  
  
"I don't know....biggantic's pretty good." Lorelai commented, nodding her head and looking distracted.  
  
"So.....Luke?"  
  
"Yeah.......Luke."  
  
"You're sure?" Sookie inquired.  
  
"Not yet. Not completely. I think I'm going to ask him if maybe we could do stuff, just hang around, maybe watch some movies or something, just do friend stuff until we get some things figured out."  
  
"That sounds.....good."  
  
"But?"  
  
"But you haven't talked to him yet have you?" Sookie smiled sympathetically.  
  
"He, uh, wasn't there today. Tonight. When I went. When I went there for dinner." Lorelai stumbled, knowing this wasn't really totally accurate, but that it also wasn't a lie.  
  
"Un hun." Sookie nodded unbelievingly.  
  
"Fine. I made sure he wasn't there before grabbing my order and burning it right outta there. I just didn't want to have to deal with that awkward part. You know, the part right after everything kinda starts but before anything's really decided..........and it gets all awkward, and nothing seems right, and all the normal stuff seems weird."  
  
"You're just going to have to push through it hon."  
  
"I don't wanna." Lorelai sighed.  
  
"Just arm yourself with something to say. Have something ready when you go in and get breakfast tomorrow and talk to him once everything settles itself out."  
  
"Thank you uber wise cook lady friend."  
  
"Good night Lorelai." Sookie winced as she heard a wail from upstairs and heard Jackson yell 'I've got it' in a groggy voice. Lorelai grinned at her friend rolling her eyes in exhaustion.  
  
"It gets better." Lorelai said encouragingly.  
  
"Jackson may not make it."  
  
"Well, it was his fault."  
  
"See, I've tried to use that to get him up to take care of Davey in the middle of the night, but he said I used up my blame quota while I was in labour."  
  
"A shame."  
  
"Truly that." Sookie grinned, then her face went soft and serious. "Go tomorrow Lorelai, just try to talk to him alright?" Lorelai nodded and grabbed her bags.  
  
"I've got a hungry kid of my own to feed. It's ten o'clock and we haven't had dinner. I'm afraid I'll get home and she'll have gnawed of a hand, or a foot, or some other important appendage."  
  
"I'll see you tomorrow hun." Sookie smiled.  
  
"Try and get some sleep." Lorelai offered as she started back down the steps.  
  
"Amen sister."  
  
"Uh, Sook?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"What if I do want.....and he doesn't want......" Lorelai shook her hand uncomfortably.  
  
"And what if I actually get a full nights sleep at any time in the next three months."  
  
"Okay." Lorelai nodded as she walked backwards down the front walk slowly. "Thanks Sookie."  
  
"Goodnight Lorelai."  
  
***********************************  
  
Lorelai wandered up the porch steps and closed the door quietly behind her.  
  
"Honey I'm home." She called out, wandering absently through the kitchen before grabbing a bottle of water.  
  
"I'm on the couch." Rory replied over the back of it.  
  
"I'd except no less." Lorelai headed into the living room and Rory reached out.  
  
"You get my burger?"  
  
"Damn, I knew I forgot something." Lorelai grinned as she passed Rory the bag.  
  
"Push the movie in." Lorelai leaned forwarded and pushed the tape in before plunking herself down on the free couch cushion.  
  
"What's tonight's feature?"  
  
"East Of Eden."  
  
"Ohhh. James Dean."  
  
"And Weekend At Bernie's."  
  
"Ohhhh.....kay. Weird choice." Lorelai started to agree and ended up giving Rory a questioning look.  
  
"I'm in a weird mood." Rory shrugged casually. "Run's it the family so it would seem." She hinted subltly, and Lorelai avoided her eyes, trying to get up.  
  
"Did you want extra ketchup for your fries. I think I saw some in the fridge last week...or at least some kind of tomato product....it might have been pasta sauce. I-" Rory grabbed Lorelai's sleeve and pulled her back down, looking directly at her.  
  
"You talked to him right?" Lorelai opened her mouth, then closed it and sighed.  
  
"He wasn't there."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah...."  
  
"Then what took you so long?"  
  
"I stopped in at Sookie's for a minute."  
  
"And?"  
  
"We just talked. I... I don't want to cut myself off from Luke completely while we try to figure this out, but it's going to be so awkward the first time I go in. I mean, what do you talk to some one about when you're both trying to decide if you like them enough, or , maybe at all, to start something. And what do you say when you both know that the other person is thinking about he same thing, but neither of you can say anything about it?" Loelai threw her head back over the arm of the couch.  
  
"You just have to have something ready to talk about."  
  
"Yeah, that's what Sookie said."  
  
"Great minds."  
  
"Yeah....but what do I talk about, and what do I do if we finish the topic and then it gets all awkward?"  
  
"I have the perfect thing. I read this article, and it says that people who drink coffee, a lot of coffee, lower their risk of diabetes. That's the perfect subject for a Lukeversation. And if it gets awkward I would suggest running far away and flailing your arms."  
  
"Wow, you are superhuman smart aren't you? How does that pretty head of yours hold it all."  
  
"I keep a little extra in jars in my desk for specific subjects."  
  
"You are my idol. And a little creepy with the brain jar things."  
  
"Understandable." Rory nodded.  
  
"Good food."  
  
"Very good food." Rory agreed as the last preview wound down.  
  
"Good movie." Rory looked over.  
  
"I think Luke likes you." Rory said quietly, staring at the T.V. screen.  
  
"Shhhh....." Lorelai murnered. "It's starting." But Rory could see the corner of her mouth twitch.  
  
*************************************  
  
Okay. Easy. Again. Just walk in and get some coffee and it'll be over with. She had gotten up this morning extra early, too early for a Saturday, and extra nervous. She read and reread the article Rory had found for her before Rory finally pushed her out the door, making her go alone by saying that she had to pack to get back to Yale tonight. Lorelai pushed the door of the diner open and lifted up her head. Just....go for it.  
  
"LUKE!" Lorelai called out, hiking her purse up her arm and heading towards the counter. "This is officially the best day of my life. Try and deny me a jug of skittles and M&Ms and a side of Ben and Jerry's with my coffee. I dare you. Tell me I'll die of diabetes.....Luke?" Lorelai had looked around the diner for Luke, and she couldn't see him. She could hear two people talking in the kitchen. Mabe he was just nervous to come out."Luke? Luuuuuke? I'm taking coffee from behind the counter." Lorelai wandered around poured herself a cup, and looked around again. Hmph. She frowned. "Okay.....I'm taking a donut now....with my hands......no tongy things.....I'm contaminating all the others and increasing their staleness by keeping the lid off......okay, now I'm licking all the clean coffee mugs....and the other donuts....and I'm squeezing them and putting them back. I'm licking and squeezing the donuts now....with bare hands....." Lorelai trailed off. Luke was either dead or in a coma if he hadn't come out by now. Lane came out of the kitchen with two plates.  
  
"Oh, hey Lorelai. Are you getting breakfast." Lane swallowed nervously. Being the bearer of bad news was never fun, and she really didn't want to have to tell Lorelai that Luke had packed his truck and burned his way outta town last night.  
  
"Uh, yeah, I.....Um, where's Luke?" Lorelai interrupted herself, throwing her hands out to the side.  
  
"Luke left." Lane replied quickly, grabbing the coffee pot and heading towards a table. Lorelai looked startled and a little stunned. She started trailing Lane and the coffee pot around the room.  
  
"He's out again."  
  
"No, not exactly. He's not so much out...as gone."  
  
"And the difference is...."  
  
"Well, one is going to the store for eggs...and one is leaving."  
  
"Luke.....left? When did he leave....why did he-where did he.....how long is he going for? This isn't like a permanent thing or something is it?"  
  
"No, he's definitely coming back." Lane said confidently.  
  
"Do you have any idea of when." Lorelai questioned and Lane's smile faltered.  
  
"I think it's kind of an.....indefinite thing."  
  
"Indefinite."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Where is he?"  
  
"Yeah...... I don't really know." Lane replied a little tentatively.  
  
"Okay. Does Caesar?" Lorelai shook her head, confused.  
  
"......No."  
  
"Does ANYONE?" Lorelai exclaimed unbelievingly.  
  
"I don't think so." Lane said apologetically.  
  
"So no one knows where he is or how long he's going to be gone for? Did he leave maybe, I don't know, a phone number, or perhaps a forwarding address?"  
  
"He said he would call...eventually."  
  
"So I can't get in contact with him at all." Lorelai moved her head from side to side.  
  
"I don't think so."  
  
"He doesn't have like, a phone, or a telegraph, or some sort of bat signal in the shape of a coffee cup to use?"  
  
"He didn't mention one specifically." Lane admitted reluctantly.  
  
"So there's no way to talk to him."  
  
"........No."  
  
"What did he say to you? I mean, what if the diner, heaven forbid, caught fire, or you got sick, or Caesar exploded or something?" Lorelai exclaimed.  
  
"He just said that he would be gone for a few days." Lane shrugged reluctantly.  
  
"Damn him, man of few words."  
  
"I'm sorry. I wish I had more to tell you." Lane tried.  
  
"Don't worry hun. I complete blame him." Lorelai said lightly, but still looking frustrated. "Alright.....well. I guess I'll see you later."  
  
"No breakfast?"  
  
"I ate a donut already. Breakfast of champions." Lorelai replied distractedly, picking her purse back up off the counter.  
  
"Alright. Bye." Lane said sympathetically as Lorelai left the diner. 


	12. Unearthing feelings that have been squir...

A/N- Ummmmm........I'm sorry? Please don't pelt the unupdater with produce.....unless it's pomegranate....Those things are good. Then feel free to. I'll try to be better. I've already started the next chapter, I promise.  
  
******************************************  
  
Luke ran his fingers through his hair, as he steered slowly down the dark dirt road that led up to the cabin. He frowned. Maybe this wasn't one of his best ideas. He probably should have told someone where he was going, and when he was going to be back. Not that he actually knew, but probably could have guessed at least....that would have been the responsible thing to do. But he had just needed to get away. Just get some time to think. Or maybe not think. He had always found that the cabin was a good place not to think.  
  
He pulled up in front of the cabin and climbed out of the truck, dragging his bag and the portable fluorescent camping lamp he had brought with him inside. It was a pretty small cabin. Just two rooms, the main room with the woodstove and couch and a couple tables, and the bedroom. He and Liz always used to fight over the old pull-out couch when they came up here as kids. The place smelled musty, so he opened both the doors to let it air out and grabbed sheets to set up the bed.  
  
"Just spend a couple days, clear your head, figure out what you're going to do.....This won't be that hard......" Luke told himself, opening up his duffle bag. He pulled out a couple of shirts and tossed them at the chair in the corner of the bedroom. One fell to the floor and he sighed in frustration and went over to pick it up. He took a look at it and shook his head. " That's a good one.. Real funny." Luke grumbled, picking up the plaid sleeved baseball shirt. He must have accidentally grabbed it while he was packing. He had come all the way out here just not think about her, or Nicole, or anything else, but some how, he had a feeling that nothing was going to let him have his peace. He shook his head and tossed it into the back of the open closet and out of his sight."I swear if stupid things like this keep showing up, I'm going nuts." Luke murmured then looked up at the mirror and laughed at himself pityingly. "Says the man who's already talking to himself."  
  
*********************  
  
Luke woke up the next day and rubbed his eyes, lying back in his bed. It was still dark out. Mind you it tended to be like that at 5:30 in the morning in late November. It was freaking freezing outside the blankets. And he didn't have to worry about the diner. Well, worry, yes, but he didn't actually have to get up for it for the first Saturday in a long time. Maybe just a few more hours for once would be nice. Just until eight. Or maybe nine. Luke rolled over a little bit to look at the old fashioned wind-up alarm clock that his dad had bought from some antique store in the middle of nowhere. That would give him exactly...Okay...the clock was staring back at him. And had a tail. Luke blinked quickly to clear the blurry images from in front of him, trying to make out solid edges. "HOLY CRAP!" Luke scrambled backwards along the mattress, tumbling out of the other side of the bed and falling onto the ground. He pulled a sheet off from around him and looked back up over the edge of the bed. The squirrel was staring back at him from the bed side table. Or maybe he'd get up now.  
  
********************  
  
Lorelai walked back to the house, frowning. She opened the front door and slammed it loudly behind her. Rory's head appeared from her doorway, looking concerned.  
  
"That did not sound like a good omen...."  
  
"Ha!" Lorelai exclaimed.  
  
"Are you okay?" Rory tried, following her out into the living room while folding up a shirt.  
  
"Ha!"Lorelai exclaimed again.  
  
"Is Luke okay?" Rory attempted.  
  
"HA!!" Lorelai laughed sarcastically.  
  
"Okay.....did you meet a clown on the way home?" Rory looked at her, confused.  
  
"No, but I did hear something funny!"  
  
"Well what do you know!" Rory exclaimed fakely, sitting down on the arm of the couch.  
  
"Get this one. Lane-"Lorelai began.  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"Tells me-"She continued slowly.  
  
"Yeah..." Rory prompted impatiently.  
  
"That Luke-"  
  
"Okaaay."  
  
"Is gone." Lorelai finished. Rory looked at her in confusion.  
  
"What?"  
  
"YEAH. That's what I said. Apparently he packed up some stuff, asked Lane to cover for the week and just took off!" Lorelai exclaimed, flopping down next to Rory.  
  
"That's not funny." Rory frowned.  
  
"Yes." Lorelai admitted, narrowing her eyes. "You're right. It's not funny. It's ironic! Irony. And irony is funny."  
  
"How is this ironic....or funny." Rory frowned in confusion.  
  
"See, now, I've thought about it..." Lorelai started to explain carefully. "And it's like when you see something, like in Shakespeare and the person gets their comeuppance. He freaked out and ran away. After all those times that I was the one to turn tail and hike it out of something, Luke was the one who up and left and I'm still right here! Ironic......Very ironic." Lorelai nodded her head. "This....is my comeuppance. I'm being punished for running out on people. Fate is a tricky foe my friend." Rory rolled her eyes at Lorelai.  
  
"You are not being comeupped."  
  
"Oh, this is most definitely a comeuppification." Lorelai insisted.  
  
"So when's he coming back?" Rory tried.  
  
"Nobody knows."  
  
"Mysterious." Rory raised her eyebrow.  
  
"Not helping."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"Lane just said that he was supposed to call eventually." Lorelai said dejectedly.  
  
"This definitely puts a damper on your plans."  
  
"I need to talk to him." Lorelai frowned and glanced over at the portable phone that was lying on the coffee table amid a pile of old magazines and a bag of crunchy Cheetos.  
  
"Can't you get a phone number? You could ask Lane?"  
  
"Phone number to where? He's basically disappeared! He pulled an Amazing Lukini And I want to talk to Luke, not phone talk to Luke." Lorelai pouted.  
  
"Buck up sailor. He'll probably be back tomorrow." Rory tried.  
  
"He better hope he is." Lorelai crossed her arms grumpily and grabbed the bag of Cheetos.  
  
"I have to go finish packing." Rory said reluctantly.  
  
"Sure you don't want to stay another week and help me from going neurotic?"  
  
"Staying with you for eighteen years didn't stop you, so I don't see why I should try again now." Rory smiled.  
  
"Fine. Abandon me Yaley."  
  
"Don't call me Yaley." She protested.  
  
"Okay.....Yaley." Lorelai grinned a little.  
  
"Going back to my room now."  
  
"I'm changing it into a sewing room when you're gone!" Lorelai called after her.  
  
"You already have a sewing room." Rory called back.  
  
"Fine....I'll set up a shrine to my shoe collection."  
  
"Fine by me."  
  
"Rory?" Lorelai asked almost hesitantly after a moment.  
  
"Yeah?" Rory answered quietly.  
  
"What if he went to Nicole?"  
  
"He didn't go to Nicole." It was silent for a minute and Rory said it again, even more firmly. "He did not go to Nicole."  
  
"Okay.... .......I just.....I want to talk to Luke. I haven't not been able to talk to him since the whole summer long thing. And we aren't even in a fight." Lorelai bit her lip and sat quietly, studying her thumb for a moment.  
  
"Maybe that's where he is?" Rory suddenly suggested.  
  
"In a fight?" Lorelai looked at her, not following.  
  
"No, the cabin. Where he went with...after..."  
  
"Oh. Right. I guess that's possible...." Lorelai said thoughtfully, starting to relax. The cabin. That made sense. Kind of....At least it was a possibility.  
  
"Is there one other thing that could be made possible?" Rory called out from the door frame of her room.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Is it possible for you to return that blue sweater?"  
  
"No." Lorelai shook her head surely.  
  
"Can you try?"  
  
"I'll give it an honest effort honey, but it's not looking good." Lorelai smiled. Rory rolled her eyes.  
  
"I want Luke back soon." She complained teasingly.  
  
"Me too." Lorelai agreed.  
  
****************************  
  
Later that day Rory left for Yale and Lorelai decided to just stay at home. She ordered pizza and watched a cheesy cable movie before pulling on her pyjamas and crawling into bed. Staring at the ceiling and trying to fall asleep, she tried to get her mind to slow down, or at least focus on one thing. She could focus on.....But then again, maybe it would be better to think about something else for a while. The inn. Lots of work needed to be done, but they were hopefully going to be opening in about ten weeks. Ten weeks wasn't that long. Not for this. Not for her dream. Luke would probably be back in three or four days....why did that period of time seem to stretch on forever. Ugh. Lorelai squeezed her eyes shut tightly and pulled the pillow around her head, covering her ears. Just focus on the inn.  
  
***************************  
  
After his unexpected wake up call on Saturday morning, Luke had spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday and Monday cleaning up the cabin and the area around it, refilling the wood box in side and re-stocking the pile outside, fixing windows and doors, just general maintainance stuff. The squirrel was now inhabiting the crawlspace under bedroom where they used to keep canned food.  
  
***************************  
  
On Tuesday, Lorelai arrived at the Dragonfly to find Sookie half sunk into the kitchen floor. The plumber had taken out some of the floorboards and she had dropped her self down into the hole created in the floor so that when Lorelai walked in, Sookie was merely a torso. Lorelai listened to her explaining pipe connections under the sink while Michel complained about his head cold and the colour of the veneer on the reception desk.....  
  
***************************  
  
By Thursday Lorelai was starting to get angry. Luke still wasn't back. Sure, Lane had told her at breakfast that he had her called the diner early that morning, saying he was up at his cabin and would be back soon. Why couldn't he have told her that?  
  
***************************  
  
When he woke up on Friday, Luke realized something....There was nothing left to do. Nothing. Nothing to keep his mind occupied. Everything had been fixed and replaced and renewed to the greatest possible extent. He had even built a whole new wood box. And even though it was freezing with the cold snap that week, the lake was still wide open, so no ice fishing. Meanwhile, the squirrel had migrated to the rafters and seemed to have made its purpose in life to run around as loudly as possible when Luke tried to sleep. He rolled over in the bed, which squeaked loudly, and reached around for his hat, which was helpful, as he hadn't washed his hair in the last few days. He threw his feet over the edge of the bed and grumbled as they touched the floorboards, which was wonderfully frosty.  
  
"Time to go home."  
  
***************************  
  
He packed up the duffel back and threw it into the back of the truck before climbing in the driver's seat and heading back. It had been a productive week at least...lots of things done that needed to get done....Man, it had been a long week. She was going to be mad when he came back, but, hey, she couldn't always have exactly what she wanted. This had been something he had wanted, so he did it. He knew he should have called before yesterday, but..... To be honest he just didn't want to. Calling broke the clearness in his head. Calling made him worry about things. Whether she was going to change her mind. Maybe go back with that Jason guy. Maybe just decide it was all a mistake. Maybe decide it was just still wasn't the right time. Maybe....But the maybes had all gone away pretty fast after he finally did call. He didn't really dwell on things that often. Okay, well, maybe a lot of people would say that that was an oxymoron in this case. But he had never really dwelt on her either. He had just wanted a chance. It wasn't that difficult an idea. Something just happened a while ago. He woke up one day, rolled over in bed and realized that his heart had fallen for her a while ago and just forgot to fully inform his head during it's descent. He had been assured of the fact that his heart had actually fallen for her, and that he was now fully aware, because he felt it beating somewhere in his feet when he saw her that day. But he realized that day and ever since that it didn't seem all that important to do much about it. It was there. There was nothing much he could do about it. He just tried to go with what felt normal, what felt right. He had wussed out a few times when he had thought that maybe she had been trying to ask him something, or tell him something. But if it was going to happen, it was going to happen. The only thing that really made this time different is that he had a choice to make and there was no Lane to ask for a cell phone, or glue to dry on a shoe. So.....  
  
***************************  
  
Lorelai slumped up onto the stool infront of the counter and Lane slid her a cup of coffee.  
  
"Thanks." She frowned and took a sip. She was not going to be childish about this. She was a grown up. She had a daughter in college. She was starting her own business. Her lip was beginning to pout. So much for maturity. Fine. If he was going to go up and be Luke, Wild Man of the Woods, she could be as childish and sulky as she wanted to.  
  
"Lane? I want a piece of cake. A reaaaalllyy big piece of cake. And don't try and tell me there's no cake. There's always cake on Fridays."  
  
"Um, okay. Is there anything else I can help you with?"  
  
"No. Unless you know where Luke keeps the sprinkles."  
  
"Cake and sprinkles it is." Lorelai took another sip of the coffee. It was okay. But it wasn't that same. She made a face and pushed it away reluctantly. Honestly, who did this. Who said everything they had, well, hadn't said, and didn't say anything and just left for a week. Who did Luke think he was? Lorelai exhaled through her teeth and stabbed at the piece of cake Lane had put in front of her. Stupid Luke. What was she supposed to do now? Who knew how long he'd stay holed up in his stupid log shack. What was she supposed to do without him?.....What was....... Lorelai pushed her cake to the side and folded her arms on the counter. What was she supposed to do without him? Lorelai started to think about her life in the past few years, and tried to think of any major decisions Luke hadn't been a factor in......okaaaay....0-14. But that could just be because he was a friend. The score was probably the same, if not more so for Sookie. But Luke wasn't Sookie. Lorelai snorted at the vision of Sookie in plaid and stubble dancing around in her head. Okay, not focusing. She took a deep breath and dropped her head down onto them, groaning. Kay Lorelai...let's play a game....finish this sentence. Luke is......Okay. Luke is...Luke. Luke was Luke....That was what it was. Chris had been the first, the father of her kid, the addiction. Max had been The Great Guy. Smart and funny and good looking and all wrong. Alex.... Had been the one who seemed right. But Luke was just Luke. No titles, not required attached descriptions. And maybe that's all she wanted. Maybe what she wanted....was Luke. He wasn't the one she went out on dates with. He was the one who was always there for all the things she pictured doing with that guy who was there forever. Dance marathons, family crises, basket auctions, birthdays, Saturdays, everydays. Maybe he was the one who was supposed to be at them with her... all of them. Lorelai grinned stupidly and laughed at herself cynically. Great. Just great. Realize how important Luke is and he's off playing Dances With Wolves with a family of chipmunks. Spectacular timing. This one rates right up there with discovering she wasn't in love the week before her marriage and having sex ed in gym class the week after she found out she was pregnant. Lane passed by and refilled her cup, but Lorelai didn't look up.  
  
"Oh, hey." Lane remarked. "Luke must be back." Lorelai raised her head up and saw a truck stop at the light before turning the corner and disappearing. She suddenly narrowed her eyes and slid deliberately off her stool, striding to the door. She walked quickly along the sidewalk and saw Luke's truck pull to a halt across from the diner.  
  
"Hi there stranger." Lorelai called out, her voice obviously laced with a little bit of anger and annoyance. Luke snapped the door open quickly and climbed out to see her. Well, he hadn't expected to have to face her so soon. And he certainly wasn't ready. Well, here came a first. He took a page out of Jess's book. Just play it cool for now. Lorelai walked up deliberately and stood obstinately infront of the back wheel, crossing her arms.  
  
"So. Where WERE you?" Lorelai said pointedly.  
  
"I went to my cabin." Luke shrugged indifferently, and a little defensively, looking at her like there wasn't anything about this to get worked up about. This was not exactly how he wanted to talk to her.  
  
"And you thought that it would be a good idea not to tell me-uh, anyone." Lorelai shook her head and hoped Luke wouldn't notice.  
  
"I told Lane." Luke excused himself and grabbed his duffel bag out of the back of his truck. Maybe if he just ignored this fun situation he had created it would just go away. But it probably wouldn't. This wasn't just like a squirrel in your cabin. He couldn't just try to pretend it wasn't there until it disappeared, or started hibernating or something.  
  
"Yesterday!" Lorelai shot back.  
  
"What?" Luke looked over his shoulder as Lorelai trailed him into the diner. He continued to the back, slipping behind the curtain that hid the stair to the apartment and dropping his duffel bag.. Lorelai followed him quickly.  
  
"Yesterday! You told Lane you were at your cabin yesterday!" Lorelai emphasized.  
  
"And?"  
  
"You were gone for five days before that! And you didn't tell...anyone." Lorelai stumbled.  
  
"So?" Luke replied, knowing it hadn't been the greatest idea, but feeling a little defensive. Lorelai opened her eyes wide and stared at him for a minute. She closed her eyes, moved her head from one side to the other, trying to collect her thoughts.  
  
"OH......my go- I'm going to go......just......I have to go now." She turned around, looking overloaded, and pushed the curtain aside, starting towards the door. Luke sighed, rubbing the inside corner of his eye. Play it cool had officially backfired. He called out across the diner at her.  
  
"Lorelai!"  
  
"I'll see you later." Lorelai called back, reaching for the door handle. Luke tried again, exasperated and a little confused.  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"I don't know. But maybe I'll tell Sookie right before I get back." Lorelai retorted pointedly.  
  
"Lorelai." Luke said again.  
  
"I have to get to the inn." She walked out the door and down the street.  
  
****************************  
  
He would have gone after her, but he couldn't just leave. Or maybe he wouldn't. Or didn't want to. She was just SO.....Infuriating. They had said that they needed a little time to think, to figure things out. So he had taken some time. He had done what they were supposed to being doing. He went to the cabin, it was a place to do what he wanted to, and he didn't have to worry about the diner, or Nicole, or anything. He just thought about..... things, for a little while. Okay, six days, but there was a lot to think about, or avoid thinking about. And he had thought he'd figured it out, albeit on the ride back. And then she comes in here and gets angry at him for doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing. Luke poured a cup of coffee for someone at the counter, watching Lorelai climb into her car and drive off towards the Dragonfly. 


	13. CarPie Dayem

A/N- I thank you beeetaaaa, oh yes I doooo.... I thank you beeetaaa and I'll be trueeeeeee....... Okay, sorry, I'll stop singing. But really, thanks to my beta reader for help with the last two chapters. Huzzah. And look, I updated so speedy. I impress myself. Actually I cheated. Twelve and thirteen used to be one chapter. Oh well....they'll never know. Mwahahahahah- Except I just told you. I should really get some sleep. Oh well. Enjoy...Hopefully. This once risks some wrath of frustration...but it's worth it for later. Goooooo Character development! Aaaaaanyways.........  
  
*******************************  
  
"What is wrong with him!?" Lorelai exclaimed, dropping her purse and leaning against a saw horse. Sookie looked up suddenly from a set of plans and whacked her head on a passing 2x4.The construction worker moved the lumber immediately and apologized, but Sookie just smiled weakly and waved him on. Sookie turned back to Lorelai and rubbed the back of her head.  
  
"Okay. One. OW. Two. What's wrong with who and can this story involve me getting an icepack?" She replied, rubbing the back of her head.  
  
"Luke. That's what's wrong." Lorelai exclaimed.  
  
"Ohhhh...So he's back." Sookie raised her eyebrow and winced.  
  
"Oh...yes...He's back alright." Lorelai grumbled.  
  
"I'm guessing not good back."  
  
"He left! He said ' Oh, lets think about us. Oh, let's get your hopes up and then I'll mysteriously skip out of town for a week.' No call, no message. And he just comes back like its no big deal that he just disappeared. Not even a souvenir." Lorelai crossed her arms and stood up from the saw horse.  
  
"That wouldn't have really helped you with the no warning thing though, would it."  
  
Sookie said, accepting a cold, wet cloth from one of the workers.  
  
"Yeah, but it would have helped his cause." Lorelai narrowed her eyes.  
  
"Pinecones would make you less upset?" Sookie grinned.  
  
"Jewelry or candy would take the bite off."  
  
"You do know his cabin's in the woods, not a Neiman Marcus store." Sookie smiled.  
  
"He drove through places. He could have found something if he wanted to."  
  
"You're irrational."  
  
"I'm angry. Maybe'll I'll call Jason." Lorelai said petulantly.  
  
"Lorelai." Sookie gave her an amused, reproving look.  
  
"What? Jason used to send flowers."  
  
"Jason was......" Sookie avoided Lorelai's eyes.  
  
"Jason was nice!"  
  
"Yes...."  
  
"And we had a lot in common."  
  
"Uh....."  
  
"We both have the same sense of humour, we like the same kind of music, and books-"  
  
"Magazines?"  
  
"Same thing. And we liked the same movies. And we both like peanut butter on bread, but not toast, because then it gets all melty, and no ice in our water at restaurants and have curly brown hair and we both have messed up relationships with our parents and-" Lorelai stopped suddenly and her face contracted."EW!"  
  
"What?" Sookie asked, looking concerned.  
  
"He's a memale." Lorelai said, as though this was both significant, and understandable.  
  
"A what? And a who?"  
  
"Jason."  
  
"Okay, part two is answered. Still don't know the what."  
  
"Jason. He's a memale."  
  
"Which is....." Sookie intoned.  
  
"He's a male me. He's a me male. He's me, except he's a guy."  
  
"Well thank go-." Sookie rolled her eyes in relief.  
  
"Sookie!"  
  
"I didn't want to say anything." She said apologetically.  
  
"You knew I was dating myself !?" Lorelai exclaimed.  
  
"You seemed happy." Sookie tried halfheartedly.  
  
"But....ew!"  
  
"I know. It was scary. It freaked me out a little."  
  
"Well, at least now we really know why my mother didn't like him." Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Let's get you a proper ice pack."  
  
"Good idea."  
  
"It's the least Michel can do for you. Michel!" Lorelai grinned.  
  
"What?" He called across the front hall, looking impatient.  
  
"Go get one of those ice packs, the hot/cold one that you can get at Doose's. Sookie hit her head."  
  
"Do I look like your maid?"  
  
"No, but a little costume, short skirt, a little white lace apron, some fishnets...." Lorelai said, looking over at Sookie, who nodded in agreement.  
  
"You are not serious." Michel glared at them.  
  
"No, you're right." Lorelai conceded.  
  
"Yeah, you really don't have the legs for a short skirt." Sookie added sadly.  
  
"Or fishnets." Lorelai added. Michel glared at them.  
  
"I do too!" He protested.  
  
"I'm sure whether that's impressive or scary." Lorelai replied, looking at Sookie, who grinned widely and shrugged.  
  
"Shut up." Michel snapped.  
  
"Get ice."  
  
"Fine." He turned around and started out of the inn.  
  
"Hmmm...He's right, he does have the legs. "Lorelai said appraisingly, watching him leave. "It's the butt that wouldn't work with the short skirt." She decided.  
  
"But of course. The butt, not the legs. How could we have made that mistake." Sookie agreed, laughing.  
  
**************************  
  
Lorelai got home, feeling distracted, and looked in the fridge. Nothing. Even if there had been, she wouldn't have wanted it. She grabbed her coat, knowing exactly where she was going, and not wanting to.  
  
**********************************  
  
Lorelai paced across the pavement, glaring up at the sign in front of Luke's. Inside Luke glanced up every few minutes and scowled at her as she went back and forth in front of the windows. After fifteen minutes, he finally dropped the coffee pot off on the counter, strode up and opened the door.  
  
"What the HELL are you doing." He demanded. Lorelai looked up at his and frowned grumpily.  
  
"There's nothing to eat at my house."  
  
"Go to Doose's." Luke, said slowly, his nostrils flaring.  
  
"I don't want to make something." Lorelai scowled back.  
  
"Order pizza." Luke suggested impatiently.  
  
"I don't feel like eating cheese." Lorelai returned, continuing to pace. People inside the diner were staring as Luke crossed his arms and yelled at her from the door of the diner.  
  
"Chinese."  
  
"No."  
  
"Al's." Luke suggested desperately. Lorelai stopped and glared at him.  
  
"What, do you not like me or something?"  
  
"Then just come inside and stop pacing before Talyor cites you for wearing a rut in the sidewalk." Luke shouted, feeling exasperated. Lorelai stopped pacing and crossed her arms.  
  
"No." She stated stubbornly.  
  
"What?" Luke looked at her disbelievingly.  
  
"No." Lorelai repeated.  
  
"WHY.....Why not?" Luke said, trying to take a deep breath. Lorelai started saying something, then stopped, then tried again.  
  
"You-I-We-.....I'm angry at you!" Luke looked at her with disbelief.  
  
"What?" He exclaimed, looking exhausted.  
  
"You left!" Lorelai shouted back. Luke rolled his eyes and clenched his fist in exasperation.  
  
"We've already gone over this!"  
  
"I know, and yet you STILL don't seem to get this." Lorelai replied and started off towards the gazebo. Luke sighed crossed the street, and jogging after her.  
  
"LORELAI. Come on. Stop walking." Luke called after her.  
  
"Go away."  
  
"Lorelai." He called again, rolling his eyes and jogging a little faster. He caught up to her and stopped.  
  
"Luke." Lorelai mocked back. Luke looked at her for a minute, then shook his head and turned around, shrugging.  
  
"Fine. If you don't want to-"He started back toward the diner. Lorelai shifted on her legs reluctantly.  
  
"A---Luke! Wait. Stop. Please?" She called back at him. Luke stopped walking and turned around, crossing his arms and looking at her expectantly. "It's just.....You know this conversation would be a lot easier if you weren't twenty feet away from me right now. "Lorelai laughed awkwardly. Luke walked sullenly over to the bench that was half way between the two of them and sat down. Lorelai meandered over slowly and sat down on the other side of the bench. They both looked down at their hands, before glancing up at each other at the same time. Luke swallowed and looked back down at his hands on his knees.  
  
"So..." Lorelai tried, attempting to crack the silence. Luke glanced at her sideways and rolled his eyes.  
  
"I only did what we were talking about." Luke said defensively.  
  
"Oh, okay then, well, I guess I just must have forgotten that part of our conversation where I told you to disappear and become an official hermit for a week." Lorelai retorted and Luke smirked at her. They both turned back away from each other and crossed their arms. "What the hell did you do that for anyway." She said, not looking at him.  
  
"We were supposed to be thinking."  
  
"Yes, we were. But why do you have to be in a forest to do that?" Lorelai shot at him, but Luke looked at her incredulously.  
  
"I get up...at five in the morning. I work...until ten. I then eat, sit for half an hour and watch some sports or something and then I go to bed. Where in this schedule do you see me having time to actually sit down and think?"  
  
"So you're saying you'd rather spend that free half hour watching sweaty men than think about me?" Luke clenched his fist in frustration.  
  
"I'M SAYING that I needed to get away so that I could actually not be thinking about sixty five thousand other things at the same time."  
  
"SO you HAD to go off to the woods."  
  
"I always go there when I have to think about something. So yes, I did."  
  
"You do know you could have told me you were going? You were at my house the night before." Lorelai pointed out. Luke rubbed the back of his neck and sighed.  
  
"I know.... I just....I had to do this by myself."  
  
"Yeah, but I didn't! I didn't want to do this alone." Lorelai exclaimed plaintively. Luke turned his head and looked at her, looking almost apologetic.  
  
"Why?" Lorelai sighed at him and rolled her head around.  
  
"I didn't want to do this by myself! I was confused! I am confused! I wanted to be able to talk to you while I was doing this! Talk about.....us. Instead, I go into the diner and Lane tells me you just up and left the day before, not warning, no message, no nothing at all!" Lorelai stood up and started to pace in front of the bench.  
  
"I'm sorry about that okay?" Luke tried.  
  
"No, not okay." Lorelai exclaimed, stopping and frowning at him.  
  
"Look, there's nothing I can do about it now!" Luke yelled, frustrated at her. Lorelai glared at him.  
  
"Don't yell at me!" She shot.  
  
"Don't yell at me!" Luke returned.  
  
"Go-You are so FRUSTRATING!" Lorelai clenched her fists.  
  
"I'M FRUSTRATING?" Luke said unbelievingly, pointing at himself.  
  
"YES YOU!"  
  
"WELL THE FEELINGS MUTUAL!" Luke shouted back, standing up from the bench.  
  
"FINE! THEN THERE'S NO POINT TO ALL THIS!" Lorelai shouted, her face falling. She turned around and wrapped her arms around herself and started walking back towards her house. Luke was breathing heavily through his nose. He shook his head.  
  
"COME ON!" He shouted at her back. Lorelai stopped and turned back to glare at him. "I SPENT SIX DAYS IN SOME FRIGID PATCH OF TREES TRYING TO NOT THINK ABOUT YOU. AND TO BE HONEST, THEY WEREN'T THE GREASTEST DAYS. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT, I REALIZED SOMETHING, AND I'M NOT GOING TO JUST LET YOU RUN AWAY FROM THIS NOW!" Luke continued, Taking half a step towards her. Lorelai's face contorted in indecision for a minute before she turned away from him again, standing still. Luke just stood his ground, staring at her. After a few minutes, Lorelai turned around slowly. Seeing Luke still standing there, his arms crossed, staring at her, she huffed in impatience.  
  
"GO AWAY!"  
  
"I'M NOT LEAVING." Luke replied obstinately.  
  
"FINE!.....PLEASE GO AWAY." She tried, looking over her shoulder.  
  
"NO!" Luke refused.  
  
"YES!" Lorelai yelled insistently.  
  
"JUST CAUSE YOU SAY IT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!" Luke replied.  
  
"YES IT DOES!" She insisted again.  
  
"FINE! You wanted to talk to me while you thought. Well, I'm here now! What do you want to know!" Luke crossed his arms again and waited.  
  
"It's too late now!" Lorelai stated unhappily.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean!" Luke asked warily.  
  
"I already found out without you!" She replied, trying to sound indifferent.  
  
"Well....Fine!" Luke exclaimed.  
  
"Fine!" Lorelai replied.  
  
"Then why are we still fighting!" Luke yelled.  
  
"Because....." Lorelai furrowed her brows. "Because you're important to me! " She replied stubbornly.  
  
"Fine!"  
  
"Fine!"  
  
"FINE! Well you're important to me too!" Luke admitted angrily.  
  
"Fine!" Lorelai shot.  
  
"Fine!" Luke shot back.  
  
"FINE!....Well... Well....." Lorelai sputtered indignantly. "Well I think I like you!" She finally declared indifferently.  
  
"Well I like you too!" Luke shot back, frowning.  
  
"Fine!" Lorelai tossed her hair.  
  
"Fine!" Luke turned around.  
  
"What the hell are we supposed to do now!" Lorelai yelled at him over her shoulder.  
  
"I have to get a divorce!" Luke replied shortly.  
  
"I still have to talk to Jason." Lorelai continued. Luke raised his eyebrows at her."What! You're the one who's still married! And I've been preoccupied."  
  
"Fine...... well...I have to go back to the diner now." Luke shouted, but a little bit more quietly.  
  
"I have to go talk to Sookie......again" Lorelai half-shouted back.  
  
"Fine. I'll see you later then."  
  
"Yeah. You will."  
  
"I'll see you then." Luke's voice was still louder than usual, but reluctantly so.  
  
"Fine." Lorelai tried to lower hers a little.  
  
"Fine."  
  
"Bye."  
  
"Bye." They both turned back around and walked off in opposite directions.  
  
**************************  
  
Luke walked back into the diner slowly. Things were fine now. And he had said that he ....but that was fine. Because she had said that she...Luke felt a little sick feeling in the top of his stomach, like he used to get right before a race. He used to take a couple Tums, but he had a feeling that wouldn't work for this. Not that he wanted it to go away. This was the good kind of uncomfortable queasiness. He...he liked Lorelai. Luke laughed to himself a little as he grabbed glasses off a table. And she liked him. But then why did they both still leave seeming angry? Luke frowned in concern and glanced out the window towards where Lorelai had walked off to.  
  
***************************  
  
Lorelai walked away quickly, but the farther she walked the slower she went. About halfway home she stopped completely and looked up absently at the tree next to her. Wait. Luke had agreed. He had said, out loud, in plain words, that he liked her. And she had left in a huff. Lorelai shook her head and turned around, walking quickly again. She sucked at this. Flirt with strangers. She was fine at that. But this, this she sucked at. She was already back at the diner. She could see him at the kitchen entrance talking to Caesar and smiled to herself.  
  
***************************  
  
Luke heard the bell ring behind him and grabbed the orders Caesar handed him.  
  
"Just sit wherever you want." He called out, dropping the food off at the table right next to him and leaving a couple checks on tables. Luke quickly grabbed some menus and turned around to find the new table. "Oh." Luke drew the menus up to his chest defensively as Lorelai gave him a short awkward wave, glancing around the diner. "Was there something-"  
  
"I just wanted to-"Lorelai started, then hesitated. They both looked around themselves subconsciously again and Luke nodded at the curtain, letting Lorelai pass in front of him. He pulled it shut behind himself and turned to face her, not quite sure what to say. They stared at each other for a while. Lorelai opened her mouth a little bit, almost about to talk, then shut it again quickly, furrowing her eyebrows. They kept standing and staring, listening to the clink of dishes and the muffled voices coming from the diner. Lorelai looked at Luke and sighed, then looked down at the ground. Luke nodded slowly, and turned around, about to pull back the curtain and go back into the diner resignedly. Lorelai looked back up and saw him starting to leave and cocked her head impatiently to one side.  
  
"I--- I'm not angry!" She tried. Luke turned around and rubbed to back or his neck, glancing up at her.  
  
"No?"  
  
"No... I'm not angry. Not at all. I'm opposite angry. I'm anti-angry." She plied. "I'm a hippie, and angry is Vietnam." Luke smiled a little.  
  
"Okay."  
  
"You're not........are you?" Lorelai said carefully, urged on by Luke's expression.  
  
"Angry?" Luke asked.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"No." He shrugged, but he couldn't keep the corners of his mouth down.  
  
"Good." Lorelai said with a little relief. She grinned at him. "I'm glad you're not Nixon."  
  
"As am I." Luke frowned at the thought.  
  
"So we're...." Lorelai nodded her head from one side to the other.  
  
"Okay?" Luke supplied.  
  
"Yeah. Maybe even good?" Lorelai grinned a little wider back at him, leaning against the wall.  
  
"Maybe good." Luke nodded slowly in agreement.  
  
"Okay."  
  
"You should.......... probably go..." Luke said, looking at the clock on the wall behind him. Lorelai's face fell.  
  
"Oh... yeah." Luke noticed this and shook his head quickly this time.  
  
"No. No, I mean, I'm not trying to get rid of you for once." Luke said playfully, trying to calm her down. Lorelai scowled at him, but he continued. "It's Friday, so I thought you'd have to be at your parents's......" Lorelai's eyes suddenly opened wide.  
  
"My parents...... With everything, and I forgot..... I will never live this down. I'm already going to be late, and I'm not even dressed yet or anything." She started to rifle through her purse for the keys to the Jeep.  
  
"You look good in that." Luke shrugged, trying to be casual. Lorelai stopped and smiled at him.  
  
"Thank you Luke." Luke shrugged, but was smiling a little. "Sorry to chat and bolt."  
  
"Nah, I understand." Luke said easily, touching her arm lightly. "It seems to be a bit of a pattern with us lately anyways. I'll get you some coffee to go."  
  
"Ugh. You're a god. Thank you." Lorelai grabbed the curtain, then turned back around to Luke, who was following her out. "I'll be back, after dinner. I promise."  
  
"Couldn't stop you if I wanted to." Luke retorted, trying for irritable and failing profoundly as he walked into the diner.  
  
"Not a chance...." Lorelai returned. "We'll figure things out, okay?" Luke nodded then, put his hand gently on the small of her back, pushing her past the counter and hand her a cup.  
  
"Sure. Go. You're late."  
  
"Ugh. I know." Lorelai groaned, slumping out of the diner and walking quickly towards her house. Stopping at the curb to cross, she turned around and smiled shyly. Luke laughed to himself as he waved reluctantly and she glanced back again, not looking in front of her and walking out into a stopped car. Lorelai looked up, startled, and apologized quickly before running across the street. She eventually turned the corner and Luke headed back to the kitchen. Caesar gave him a knowing smile and nudged him with his elbow, but Luke just tried to scowl and failed miserably. Eventually he headed back out into the diner, cut two slices of pie and took them to the nearest table.  
  
"Uh, we didn't order pie." The guy said. Luke shrugged.  
  
"Don't worry. It free pie. It's on the house." Another right next to them table perked up.  
  
"Free pie?" Another guy asked curiously.  
  
"Yeah." Luke shrugged.  
  
"For everyone?" Kirk asked from the counter.  
  
"Yeah, sure why not." Luke decided. "It's free pie day." 


	14. dum dum DUMMMMM Now screening Pierony: T...

A/N- Sorry I took so long. I included a little update on the last chapter or so to refresh everyone's memory. I a bunch of new ideas so don't fret, there is more to come. Really. Honest. Just ask my beta. Which reminds. THANKS J. !!! I took a lot of your suggestions, so I give co-credit especially on this one!  
  
**************************  
  
REFRESH  
  
"Luke. That's what's wrong." Lorelai exclaimed.  
  
"Ohhhh...So he's back." Sookie raised her eyebrow and winced.  
  
*  
  
"You-I-We-.....I'm angry at you!" Luke looked at her with disbelief.  
  
"What? Why?" He exclaimed, looking confused.  
  
"You left!" Lorelai shouted back. Luke rolled his eyes and clenched his fist in exasperation.  
  
"We've already gone over this!"  
  
"I know, and yet you STILL don't seem to get this." Lorelai replied and started off towards the gazebo.  
  
*  
  
"FINE! Well I think I like you!" Lorelai declared indifferently.  
  
"Well I like you too!" Luke shot back.  
  
"Fine!"  
  
"Fine!"  
  
* "I--- I'm not angry!" She tried. Luke turned around and rubbed to back or his neck, glancing up at her.  
  
"No?"  
  
"No... I'm not angry. Not at all. I'm opposite angry. I'm anti-angry." She plied. "I'm a hippie, and angry is Vietnam." Luke smiled a little.  
  
"Okay."  
  
"You're not........are you?" Lorelai said carefully, urged on by Luke's expression.  
  
"Angry?" Luke asked.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"No." He shrugged, but he couldn't keep the corners of his mouth down.  
  
"Good." Lorelai said with a little relief. She grinned at him. "I'm glad you're not Nixon."  
  
*  
  
"You should.......... probably go..." Luke said, looking at the clock on the wall behind him. Lorelai's face fell.  
  
"Oh... yeah." Luke noticed this and shook his head quickly this time.  
  
"No. No, I mean, I'm not trying to get rid of you for once." Luke said playfully, trying to calm her down. Lorelai scowled at him, but he continued. "It's Friday, so I thought you'd have to be at your parents's......" Lorelai's eyes suddenly opened wide.  
  
"My parents...... With everything, and I forgot..... I will never live this down. I'm already going to be late, and I'm not even dressed yet or anything." She started to rifle through her purse for the keys to the Jeep.  
  
"You look good in that." Luke shrugged, trying to be casual. Lorelai stopped and smiled at him.  
  
"Thank you Luke." Luke shrugged, but was smiling a little. "Sorry to chat and bolt."  
  
"Nah, I understand." Luke said easily, touching her arm lightly. "It seems to be a bit of a pattern with us lately anyways. I'll get you some coffee to go."  
  
"Ugh. You're a god. Thank you." Lorelai grabbed the curtain, then turned back around to Luke, who was following her out. "I'll be back, after dinner. I promise."  
  
END REFRESH  
  
****************************  
  
****************************  
  
Rory waited patiently outside the dorm, glancing up the street to see if Emily or Richard was coming yet.  
  
"Need a ride somewhere?"  
  
Rory turned around and smiled at Marty as he walked up behind her. "No. Since I gave you your car back after the baseball game I have to get a ride to dinner from my grandparents. They should be here soon."  
  
"Did you want me to wait with you?" Marty offered.  
  
Rory smiled and nodded. "Sure...So, how has your week been?"  
  
"Rough. I got a test back in my anatomy class. I forgot that the knee bone connected to the femur, not the thigh bone." Marty grinned, shaking his head.  
  
"Preschool songs can be so misleading." Rory nodded in agreement, smiling back at him.  
  
Marty laughed a little. "So, I had fun at the tournament....even though we didn't really get to finish."  
  
"Yeah, sorry about that. I swear our town events aren't always that All My Children. And my mom isn't usually involved in things like this....It was just......" Rory shrugged.  
  
"Entertaining, if you weren't involved." Marty tried.  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"So what exactly was going on with that?"  
  
"It's just Luke, and my Mom.....There's just this thing...and it's...well, complicated. Oh. And my ride's here." Rory nodded as a silver sedan with Richard in the driver's seat pulled up to them. "So, I'll be seeing you?"  
  
"Yeah." Marty glanced down at the ground and dropped his hands in his pockets. As Rory grabbed the door handle he looked back up. "Uh, hey Rory? Did you want to come with me, out to dinner next week? I found this really great cafe place off campus with a couple of my suitemates, and I thought you might want to go. They have a band playing there on Friday, and you could update me on the Stars Hollow soaps scene."  
  
Rory searched for her words for a minute.  
  
"Oh, well, yeah. That would be, uh, good." She stuttered, then pointed at the car. "I have to.....go. So I'll talk to you on Monday. Or Sunday. Or later. Or...Bye." Rory finished quickly, pulled the car door open and ducked inside with a short wave. Marty nodded back at her with a nervous smile and sat down on the bench as the Richard pulled away. Rory bit her nail and looked back at him as they drove on.  
  
"Anything wrong, Rory?" Richard asked, seeing her distracted.  
  
"What? Oh, no, everything's fine....I'm just...fine. Good, really." Rory shook away her pensive thoughts and smiled.  
  
"All right. Then I suppose you'd still be interested in a little something I found hiding in the back of a bookshelf in the upstairs guest bedroom. I read these myself when they came out, not very difficult, but very interesting and quite clever." Richard took one hand off of the wheel and pulled a paperback novel out of the centre console.  
  
"'My Family And Other Animals'?" Rory smiled, reading the title.  
  
"I think your mother might appreciate it as well." Richard smiled and glanced at Rory sideways.  
  
**************************  
  
Lorelai grabbed her coat off the hook in the front hallway and walked quickly out the door, and across hr porch, talking loudly into her cell phone.  
  
"No, no Earl, I can't wait for the moldings to come in by Friday. I need them on Monday, like you promised." She slid into the Jeep and turned the key in the ignition, twisting in her seat to back out of the driveway. "Why Monday? Because you said it would be here Monday, so being the foolish person I am, I scheduled the nice men who will be installing the moldings for Tuesday.......No....No, I can't just reschedule....Because I'm on a schedule..... No, I have to be done the moldings this week.....Well I'm very sorry about your parrot....No.....Yes, early Tuesday is fine. Very early Tuesday......Five....as in the morning five?.....You're really killing my buzz here Earl......Fine. Five it is....Yes.....Thank you Earl. You are a beautiful man. Thank you. No, I really have to go. I'm late for a meeting.... No. Don't worry about it. Bye."  
  
Lorelai snapped her phone shut and bent down to grab the box of Altoids from her purse, but suddenly saw something dart across the street. She dropped the phone and grabbed the wheel with both hands again, slamming her foot against the brake and swerving to the left. The cat slunk across the street. Lorelai sat back in her seat and sighed, casting angry glances at the cat, pulling over and bending down to pick up her phone.  
  
"Oh, no," Lorelai groaned, seeing the phone under the brake pedal. She picked it up and flipped it open, but the screen was crushed and when she tried to turn it on it merely flickered for a minute and shut itself down. "Great. Wonderful."  
  
Lorelai shook her head and pull back onto the street, her speed creeping up as she reached the highway. As she approached the turn off for Hartford, she tapped her free foot nervously, glancing down at the clock. "Come on......two more miles." She glanced at the clock again. She was only fifteen minutes late...it would be okay if she just.......  
  
She heard the wail of the siren and groaned, pulling over to the side of the road. The officer climbed out of her car and approached the Jeep, and Lorelai smacked her head down on the steering wheel and lowered the window.  
  
************************  
  
Emily tapped impatiently on the side of her glass, glancing out at the front hall.  
  
"Where is your mother?" She frowned.  
  
Rory glanced at her watch.  
  
"I don't know. I talked to her on Wednesday and she didn't say anything. Maybe she had something on at the inn."  
  
"Well she should have called. She's half an hour late, for heaven's sake. If she's not here in five minutes, we're starting dinner without her." Emily said sharply. She snatched her drink up off the side table, and the doorbell rang loudly. "Well finally." Emily snapped, handing her drink to Richard, who had been sitting beside her. "Richard, why don't you and Rory go ahead into the dining room."  
  
"Okay, Grandma." Rory agreed quickly, glancing nervously at the door. They left the living room and parted in the hallway as Emily moved to open the front door.  
  
"Hello, Lorelai," Emily said icily. "Nice of you to join us." She stepped aside to let Lorelai in. Lorelai pulled her jacket off quickly and handed it to the maid, and tugged on her dress. Emily stood primly beside her.  
  
"Rory's here."  
  
"Good." Lorelai nodded warily.  
  
"You're late." Emily stated, starting off down the hallway.  
  
"I know-" Lorelai started, following after her.  
  
"Over half an hour late." Emily continued.  
  
"I know Mom, and I'm sorry, I just- Wait, no living room tonight?" Lorelai said, confused, as Emily walked towards the dining room.  
  
"You could have joined us if you had been on time."  
  
"But...." Lorelai looked desperately back at the drink cart, over her shoulder, reaching back and pawing towards it wistfully, but Emily led her into the dining room.  
  
"There's wine with dinner Lorelai." Emily sighed impatiently. "Hopefully you can wait a few more minutes for that."  
  
"Ooooh, wine. Okay." Lorelai frown turned quickly to a smile as she sat down quickly across from Rory. The maid emerged from the doorway with a bottle of wine and stepped to Richard's place to pour a glass, but Emily held up her hand.  
  
"I think you should probably pour Lorelai's first, Guerta. Otherwise she might ruin the tablecloth when she dives across the table after Richard's in impatience."  
  
Lorelai rolled her eyes.  
  
"I wouldn't dive across the table Mom. Everyone knows the best way to do it is to trip the maid and grab the bottle from her when she falls." Lorelai motioned a trip and grab movement.. Rory laughed across the table and tried to hide it in her glass of soda, but Emily just pursed her mouth and shook her head at Lorelai before starting into her salad.  
  
"So why were you late." Emily questioned Lorelai, not looking up from her plate.  
  
"I had this really horrible day, just one of those days where things keep going wrong and keep going wrong, and it won't stop. It was terrible." Lorelai shook her head, and rubbed her temple as if just talking about it made her head hurt.  
  
"What happened?" Rory asked, especially concerned, what with all the drama that had been going on lately in stars Hollow.  
  
"Well, something CAME BACK up." Lorelai emphasized, looking purposefully at Rory, whose eyes opened wide as she nodded in understanding. Rory nudged her under the table, signaling their need to talk as soon as possible. "And I had to work through a disagreement, and I was so distracted by it I forgot it was Friday and--"  
  
"Who did you disagree with?" Emily interrupted.  
  
"Well, it wasn't so much a disagreement as--" Lorelai said evasively.  
  
"Was it someone at the inn?"  
  
"Uh, no, and it--"  
  
"Was it Sookie?" Emily pushed  
  
"No, no it wasn't Sookie, Mom...." Lorelai returned, as Richard and Rory watched the exchange apprehensively.  
  
"Then who was it?" Emily demanded.  
  
"Why do you have to know?"  
  
"Well, I just find it less than courteous to arrive late, without so much as a phone call, act foolishly, and bring up topics at the dinner table that you refuse to discuss."  
  
"Luke. I had a fight with Luke. Do you want a play by play, or maybe a transcript?" Lorelai said, exasperated.  
  
"So do you know when you guys are going to have the inn opening?" Rory tried, hoping to veer the topic off course.  
  
"What did you do?" Emily demanded,  
  
"Nothing!" Lorelai exclaimed, looking offended.  
  
"Then why were you fighting?"  
  
"I killed his hamster." Lorelai sighed.  
  
"You're being childish." Emily said severely, obviously not amused.  
  
"You're being invasive." Lorelai replied, equally ill-tempered. They stared each other down for a minute.  
  
"So what reminded you to finally show up?" Richard said through the awkward silence.  
  
"Luke did. So I ran home, and I almost got hit by a car and I got changed, and right while I was leaving I got a call about the inn, and then I almost hit a cat, and I dropped my cell phone and crushed it when I was trying to brake, so I couldn't call you, and then I was trying to get here kind of on time and I had a bit of a delay."  
  
"Delay?" Emily commented dubiously.  
  
"I got a speeding ticket."  
  
"Ouch." Rory commiserated.  
  
"And I was almost here. Two more miles and I would have been home free!" Lorelai groaned.  
  
"Well, isn't it a shame you didn't get away with breaking the law." Emily retorted.  
  
"If only I was a celebrity...or the cop had been a man...." Lorelai said wistfully.  
  
************************************  
  
Lorelai and Rory climbed into the Jeep and started back towards Stars Hollow. Rory glanced over at her.  
  
"So now you can take your car back to Yale with you this week." Lorelai said, concentrating on the road.  
  
"Yeah,. That's good."  
  
"You may have to get some gas. I drove your car a few places."  
  
"Why."  
  
"Because the jeep had no gas." Lorelai stated matter-of-factly.  
  
"So you're really that cheap." Rory accused her jokingly.  
  
"Yes." Lorelai nodded. The car grew silent for a little while.  
  
"So he's back." Rory said firmly.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And....." She continued, trying to prompt some details out of her mother.  
  
"I like Luke." Lorelai said slowly, biting her lip and checking her mirrors.  
  
"Like Luke like ' I like Kirk,' or like Luke like 'I like Bono."  
  
"Hey, you know what, I'm very happy to say that neither of those describe the way in which I like Luke." Lorelai pointed a finger at Rory.  
  
"But if it were leaning towards one or the other?" Rory pushed.  
  
"Bono." Lorelai said decisively.  
  
"That's good!....." Rory replied happily. "Does Luke know this?" She added cautiously as an afterthought.  
  
"Definitely yes."  
  
"I'm guessing that there's an amusing anecdote behind that 'definitely yes'." Rory continued curiously.  
  
"We had a fight in the middle of the town." Lorelai confided.  
  
"Alright then." Rory waited for the rest of the story.  
  
"And we kind of yelled it at each other, in this whole 'I hate you!' 'Me too' 'I like you!' 'Me too!' kind of thing, and I ended up having to go back to the diner and tell him that I wasn't mad anymore."  
  
"Well."  
  
"Yeah..." Lorelai said, taking a deep breath.  
  
"So, what are you guys now?"  
  
"We're...uh....nothing really? It's still.....with Nicole, and- Oh, I keep forgetting to call Digger?"  
  
"You should probably do that soon." Rory winced.  
  
"I guess I'll have to call him when I get home." Lorelai wrinkled her nose.  
  
"No, cause then you'll be all moody for the movies! Call tomorrow." Rory pleaded.  
  
"I don't want to forget again!"  
  
"Will it be quick?"  
  
"Like lightening." Lorelai promised with a smile.  
  
"Fine." Rory caved.  
  
" Hey, when we get into town, why don't you go ahead and pick all the movies and junk food this week, favourite daughter."  
  
"Only daughter. You have to talk to Luke then ?" Rory said plainly, seeing right through Lorelai.  
  
"I kind of promised I'd come in after dinner."  
  
"Hey, am I going to have to work out a signal for you two? Knock twice and wait for you to do the call of the swan if it's alright for me to come back. Goose if you need ten more minutes?"  
  
"Not even. There's nothing like that. But I'll be sure to hang a sock on the open/close sign of the diner if that even becomes an issue." Lorelai grinned and pretended to dangle an imaginary sock.  
  
"Awwwwww. Ick." Rory grimaced.  
  
"You brought it up," Lorelai pointed out.  
  
"You took it too far." Rory shook her head and Lorelai smiled.  
  
*********************  
  
"I'll meet you back here in ten." Lorelai said, standing in front of the diner.  
  
"Make it fifteen." Rory disagreed.  
  
"So twenty?" Lorelai settled.  
  
"Exactly." Rory nodded and headed off towards Doose's.  
  
Lorelai grabbed the doorknob and leaned back, but instead of stepping inside, she ended up standing apprehensively in the open doorway. She was startled by a loud voice behind the counter.  
  
"In or out. Do you know how much it costs to heat this place?"  
  
"You're not paying to heat the whole neighbourhood, eh?" Lorelai watched as Luke appeared quickly from behind the counter.  
  
"Lorelai. I probably should have guessed." Luke returned.  
  
She walked over to the counter and sat on a stool, clasping her hands together in front of her and leaning forwards a bit.  
  
"That's all right. Everyone has off days....Rory's picking up some movies." Lorelai said, looking up at Luke.  
  
"So she's back for the weekend. That's good." He nodded, watching her.  
  
"Yeah, just for tonight, and then she's back to Yale after dinner tomorrow."  
  
"Well, lots of studying to do, I'd guess."  
  
"Of course......"  
  
"I called Nicole." Luke said suddenly, but firmly.  
  
"Okay, well, that was an unexpected, and oh so subtle segueway." Lorelai replied, looking a little taken aback.  
  
"She said she'd send the papers over soon. Express mail, to be exact." Luke said shortly, looking as though it hadn't exactly been a pleasant conversation..  
  
"Yeah, you guys didn't really get that whole clean break-up thing going, did you. I mean, most people do it n a restaurant, or in private, not in front of the entire population of their city. I mean it could be worse than breaking up in front of twenty six people..." Lorelai joked sympathetically and Luke gave a little laugh.  
  
"NO. No, it wasn't the best break up ever, but I guess it could have been worse.." Luke shook his head ruefully and shrugged, grabbing the coffee pot and turning back to pour some for her.  
  
Lorelai tilted her head to see the look on his face.  
  
"We did cause quite the scene though, didn't we." Lorelai said quietly.  
  
Luke looked up her with a little smile on his face and nodded. She went to reach for the mug but Luke lifted his hand up and pushed her gently back down to the countertop, letting his own hand rest on top. They both stared as Luke's thumb tentatively rose up and slowly ran across the back of Lorelai's hand. Lorelai lifted one hand up and crossed it over, covering up Luke's.  
  
"We can't do this." Lorelai shook her head, looking at his fingers.  
  
"I know." Luke said evenly, like he was agreeing with a dinner order, but he started rubbing her wrist gently with his thumb.  
  
"Not even accidentally." Lorelai said hesitantly.  
  
"Should there be a ten foot buffer involved?" Luke said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"It might be a good idea. Just until everything else is resolved." Lorelai said half jokingly.  
  
"We have to. It's the right thing to do. For everyone involved. "Luke sighed and nodded, knowing it was the right thing to do.  
  
"And it'll be good....for us.... It'll give us a chance to adjust to this...new situation."  
  
"Okay." Luke nodded.  
  
"You have to let go of my hand, though." Lorelai smiled at him shyly.  
  
"What if I say no?" Luke shrugged.  
  
"I guess there wouldn't be much I could do." Lorelai smiled back at him with a little laugh.  
  
Luke shook his head with a grin and pulled his hand away slowly. "Yeah, I guess not. Go have fun with Rory." He waved her away and drew his own hand back to his pockets.  
  
"Can I just- "Lorelai said hopefully.  
  
"Go have uncaffienated fun with Rory." Luke clarified.  
  
Lorelai frowned at him. "Well, at least I know some things never change. Crank." She glared at him, wrinkling up her nose.  
  
"Crazy." Luke retorted lightly. "Go home."  
  
"Maybe I won't come back." Lorelai declared passionately.  
  
"I'll see you tomorrow." Luke waved at her, looking down at the receipts by the cash register.  
  
Lorelai gave up on her act and leaned back on the counter.  
  
"Can I at least get pie?" She pleaded, swaying from side to side.  
  
"If you say 'But hold the pie and just put coffee in,' I'm cutting you off for a week." Luke threatened as he cut two slices of pie and slid them into a takeout container.  
  
******************************  
  
"So?" Lorelai demanded, poking at the movie bag.  
  
"Tonight's theme will be......" Rory announced as Lorelai smacked her hands against her legs to make the drum roll. "Elizabeth Taylor. Extra chocolate to whoever can guess what tonight's triple feature will be." Rory waved a bar of chocolate in front of Lorelai enticingly.  
  
"Oh! Okay....obvious first, the beginner, National Velvet." Lorelai stated, rolling her eyes at the easiness.  
  
"That was a gimme." Rory protested.  
  
"Okay, second's a classic..........Cleopatra." Lorelai decided, pointing over at Rory  
  
"And the last?"  
  
"Is always the Krazy Konnection Bonus Round.... Elizabeth Taylor......Richard Burton.....Richard The Lionhearted.....Okay.....Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves?" Lorelai deliberated.  
  
"Ohhhh, good try, but no. Elizabeth Taylor.....diamonds.....diamonds are a girl's best friend...." Rory lead.  
  
"Moulin Rouge!"  
  
"Exactly!"  
  
"Yes! Perfect!" Lorelai exclaimed, clapping her hands together.  
  
"Why perfect?" Rory questioned.  
  
Lorelai grinned at her and pulled out the styrofoam case from inside the Luke's bag she had with her. She popped it open and displayed the contents. "Cherry Pie." Lorelai stated.  
  
"Okay." Rory said, furrowing her brow in confusion. Lorelai sighed in impatience, waiting for her to pick up on it.  
  
"Moulin ROUGE. Red. Like the cherries in the pie. Red. Rouge. English. French. It all matches." Lorelai explained as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
  
"Suuuure." Rory nodded in fake understanding.  
  
"Because, I mean, if I had gotten peach, or apple, or blueberry, it wouldn't have worked. But I specifically got cherry, which is red. So it's perfect."  
  
"Unhunh." Rory continued, placatingly.  
  
"You still don't get it." Lorelai frowned.  
  
"Oh no, I get it......" Rory said teasingly.  
  
"Hey!" Lorelai's jaw dropped in protest. "That was a good connection I made!"  
  
"Sure Robin Hood."  
  
"Fine, you don't appreciate the pie-rony of it all, then you get none!" Lorelai snatched the pie to her chest.  
  
"I cannot believe you just made a pie pun!" Rory started laughing, but Lorelai just pointed a finger at her accusingly.  
  
"Hey, you are not helping your cause there!"  
  
"Pie-rony?"  
  
"Shut up." Lorela scowled, trying not to laugh.  
  
**************************  
  
"You go get it started. I just have to make a call." Lorelai said, handing the bag of food to Rory.  
  
"Jason?"  
  
"Jason." Lorelai nodded and picked up the phone on the way to the kitchen. She dialed his number, plunking herself down in one of the kitchen chairs, and waited as it rang.  
  
"Hello, Jason Stiles speaking."  
  
"Hi.....Jason." Lorelai said slowly.  
  
"Lorelai." She heard his tone drop as he heard her voice.  
  
"Yeah. I know, it's been like...."  
  
"A week. I didn't think you were going to call." Jason filled in for her.  
  
"I know. That wasn't fair of me. I just-" Lorelai started.  
  
"Can you come to dinner tomorrow?" Jason interrupted.  
  
"Wow, uh, blunt. Okay, Jason, I just don't think that--" Lorelai struggled, looking for her words.  
  
"I know. I just wanted to talk to you. I understand, but I wanted to clear the air between us." Lorelai noticed his business like tone was more prominent than usual in his voice, which was understandable.  
  
"Wow. This is abnormally healthy. Are you sure about this?" She replied  
  
"Yes. How about six thirty at Gianosa?" Jason said quickly.  
  
"O.....kay. Yes, six thirty is fine. But, are you sure this is, I mean, I was horrible, I didn't call, and you heard about...." Lorelai was quickly getting lost in this conversation, not quite sure what was exactly going on.  
  
"We'll talk about it tomorrow. I'll meet you there?" He continued.  
  
"Tomorrow." Lorelai said faintly.  
  
"Tomorrow. I've got to finish a few contracts before I got to bed, so I have to go."  
  
"Okay. Bye....." Lorelai tried.  
  
"Good night Lorelai."  
  
Lorelai turned off the phone and walked back to the living room. "I think Jason just asked me out again."  
  
"What?" Rory exclaimed, twisting in her spot to look at Lorelai as she hung up the phone and walked over to the couch.  
  
"Yeah I know.....I'm confused. Very confused. Bush trying to understand long division confused." Lorelai stressed sitting down next to Rory.  
  
"So, pretty confused."  
  
"He seemed fine." Lorelai said, as thought this were a strange thing, like flying pigs, or a talking bagel.....at least like a talking bagel to people who didn't know her.  
  
"Okay." Rory said, still confused as well.  
  
"And we're going to dinner. And I don't want him to think that this is a date, or a date like thing, or anything like that!"  
  
"Oh." Rory said, slightly alarmed at how the phone call had turned out.  
  
"I know! I'm a horrible person." Lorelai buried her head in her hands.  
  
"Well I know how you feel." Rory sighed.  
  
"Like there's a beaver gnawing at your leg. A beaver named Guilt." Lorelai clenched one fist and glared off into space.  
  
"That sounds about right." Rory replied.  
  
"What's wrong with you?" Lorelai asked, looking at Rory quizzically.  
  
"I think Marty may have asked me out." Rory winced.  
  
"Marty's nice...." Lorelai tried. "But what exactly happened that you THINK he asked you out?"  
  
"I was waiting for Grandpa to pick me up, and he came up and waited with me, and he asked me to go with him to this café off campus next Friday night with him."  
  
"And this is bad?" Lorelai clarified.  
  
"Yes! I mean, I like him, he's a great friend." Rory said helplessly.  
  
"But just a friend." Lorelai smiled kindly.  
  
"Exactly." Rory agreed, looking up at her mom.  
  
"You're going have to tell him." Lorelai admitted, shaking her head.  
  
"Like you told Jason?" Rory reproved.  
  
"Slightly more complicated there." Lorelai stated.  
  
"I don't want to hurt his feelings." Rory sighed and drew her eyebrows together before leaning back against the couch pillows.  
  
"Yeah, but if you don't tell him, then it's going to hurt even more." Lorelai reminded her.  
  
"Boys suck." Rory grumbled.  
  
"Yeah, and they're weird, and they smell funny." Lorelai replied with a fake grumbly voice.  
  
Rory cracked a smile and shook her head at her Lorelai before continuing the strand.  
  
"And they do gross things."  
  
"And they always say the wrong thing." Lorelai added.  
  
"Yeah!" Rory agreed enthusiastically.  
  
"But the right ones can be nice." Lorelai said after a moment, grabbing a throw pillow to hug and rubbing her thumb over the back of her hand..  
  
"Yeah, if you can find them." Rory said dejectedly.  
  
"So you'll tell him?" Lorelai said softly, not wanting to push too much.  
  
"And you'll clear things up with Jason?" Rory returned.  
  
"Crystal." Lorelai nodded back.  
  
"Alright. Are we ready then?"  
  
"For National Velvet? Always. Who doesn't love a Liz Taylor/ Horse movie." Lorelai scoffed, pushing the play button on the remote.  
  
"The icky boys." Rory replied logically.  
  
"Awww, that's my big mature girl." Lorelai grinned, wrapping her arm around Rory's shoulders.  
  
********************************** 


End file.
